254 ALLAN HANCOCK PACIFIC EXPEDITIONS VOL. 11 



compiled and deposited in the Foundation during the war*. Finally, in 

 the winter of 1954-55, I was given an opportunity to spend three months 

 at the Hancock Foundation going through the entire collection and 

 finishing the report. 



I beg the authorities of the Hancock Foundation to accept my 

 sincere thanks for the privilege of studying this unique collection, and 

 for all the help and encouragement received during my most happy visit. 

 In particular I wish to thank Captain Allan Hancock, whose unflagging 

 interest in marine life has given an impetus to the study of the west 

 coast invertebrates which can be compared only to that given by 

 Alexander Agassiz through his Albatross expeditions in the latter part 

 of the last century. 



Station List 



To eliminate duplication and the tedious work of co-ordinating wide- 

 ly scattered locality records, the stations are here arranged geographical- 

 ly instead of chronologically. 



First on the list are placed the outlying islands, those which most 

 likely have served as steppings tones for the Indo-West Pacific forms 

 which have been able to cross the eastern Pacific : the Galapagos Islands, 

 Cocos Island, and the Revilla Gigedo islands. Clarion and Socorro. The 

 Clipperton Islands are not included as no aspidochirote holothurians were 

 collected there by the Hancock expeditions, but they are mentioned under 

 the distribution of the individual species. In the Galapagos Islands it has 

 been found most practical to arrange the large number of stations alpha- 

 betically under each island, beginning with Albemarle and ending with 

 Tower. 



Along the mainland, the stations are arranged from south to north, 

 the units being Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, the exposed part 



*A preliminary list was compiled by Domantay and, unfortunately, rather 

 hurriedly published by him in 1953 without having any of the supposedly new 

 records checked with older material. Of the genus Holothuria he lists 43 species 

 and varieties, which subsequent examination has reduced to 20, His seven new 

 species and varieties are complete nomina nuda with not even a locality record 

 given, and these names must therefore be rejected once and for all. Most of 

 the supposedly new forms, as well as the 16 older species hitherto known only 

 from other parts of the world, have proved to be juvenile or atypical individuals 

 of species already known from the Panamic region. 



From the Atlantic cruises he lists 10 aspidochirotes, of which he considers 

 seven common to both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. His Holothuria atra 

 from Florida proved, however, to be a dark-skinned H. fioridana which had been 

 preserved for a short time in formalin, causing the skin to be unusually smooth. 

 His other species, except H. arenicola and H. impatiens, are considered distinct 

 from those in the Panamic region. 



