2 ALLAN HANCOCK PACIFIC EXPEDITIONS VOL. 25 



affect faunal populations both as to kinds and numbers of species. The 

 preponderance of polychaetes in the shallow shelf areas of southern 

 California has been partly described (Hartman, 1955 to 1959; Emery, 

 1960, p. 165). 



The majority of these geographic areas in California remain unknown 

 for their annelid faunas. Most of the published records of species are 

 based on collections obtained in intertidal areas where universities or 

 their marine laboratories have operated. These areas include Dillon 

 Beach and Tomales Bay north of San Francisco ; San Francisco Bay and 

 Moss Beach in the vicinity of Berkeley; Monterey Peninsula in the 

 vicinity of Stanford University, and southern California from Santa 

 Barbara south to the Mexican border, where extensive surveys were 

 conducted by the University of Southern California between 1952 and 

 1959. 



Faunistically considered the most prominent zones are ( 1 ) the muddy 

 marshes, bays and estuaries occurring in protected or little disturbed 

 embayments, (2) the long, narrow to broad sandy beaches bordering 

 much of the state of California, constantly buffeted by upsurging currents 

 and tidal movements, and (3) the rocky, irregularly projecting headlands, 

 richly overgrown with plants and attached animals of many kinds. The 

 muddy marshlands of San Francisco and San Pablo Bays have been 

 partly studied by Filice (1945) and Hartman (1954, in which 115 

 species are named) ; those of Newport, Mission and San Diego Bays 

 partly by Berkeley and Berkeley (1941) and Hartman (several reports). 

 The intertidal sandy beaches, extending from northernmost to southern- 

 most parts of the state, have a too rigorous climate to support most soft- 

 bodied metazoan animals ; the most frequently occurring polychaetes 

 belong to the genera Eteone, Hemipodus, Goniada, Nephtys and some 

 opheliids. The rocky shores, extending through intertidal zones from 

 upper, sparsely populated, to low algal overgrown rocks, provide the 

 greatest diversity of habitats and consequently a varied polychaete fauna. 

 Each of these zones is characterized by many kinds of polychaetes. Be- 

 cause these intertidal zones are the most accessible to the collector, they 

 are also the best known. 



Subintertidal zones of California are much less known. Some of the 

 earliest studies resulted from cruises of the U.S.S. ALBATROSS, for 

 which the polychaetes were largely described by Moore (1904 to 1923). 

 The more recent quantitative studies off southern California, supported 

 by the Allan Hancock Foundation, the California State Water Pollution 

 Control Board and the National Science Foundation, between 1952 and 



