342 BIOLOGICAL SURVEY OP 



Rhamphostomella Lorenz, 1886 



Rhamphostomella ovata (Smitt), 1867. PI. 11, figs. 5-6. 

 (Osburn, 1912, p. 245, references and synonymy; 1912 a, p. 

 286, Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, and Labrador; Whiteaves, 

 1901, p. 108, Gulf of St. Lawrence.) Common, usually on 

 stems of various sorts, but also on stones and shells, at four 

 shore stations and twenty-one dredging stations. Arctic seas, 

 Greenland, Iceland, etc., and southward on the American 

 coast to Cape Cod. On the European coast it apparently 

 does not extend southward beyond the Lyngenf jord, Norway. 



Zooecia large, somewhat convex, with large punctures and 

 marginal areolae. The aperture is large, ovoid, the larger 

 rounded end anterior, the narrowed proximal end usually 

 somewhat unsymmetrically placed. An oval avicularium is 

 situated on the anterior surface of a blunt, smooth rostrum 

 and facing toward the aperture. The large ooecia are imper- 

 forate or very finely punctured and globose in form. 



Rhamphostomella scabra (Fabricius), 1780. (Whiteaves, 

 1901, p. 108, for references and records.) Taken only once, 

 station 69. As far as our observations go, B. scahra does 

 not appear to be at all common on the North Atlantic coast 

 of America. Norman's identification of Dawson's material 

 from the Gulf of St. Lawrence is no doubt correct, but Ver- 

 rill's statement ''Vineyard Sound to Greenland' is undoubt- 

 edly open to question, as I have determined by the examina- 

 tion of his material that he confused both cosfata and bilami- 

 uata with scabra. As a matter of fact, all of the older records 

 in this genus must be accepted with caution, at least until the 

 work of Lorenz (1886) became known. The true scabra has 

 not been found as far south as Vineyard Sound, though I have 

 a specimen from Georges Bank, in the Gulf of Maine. The 

 species is a high northern one, reported most frequently from 

 the Arctic Ocean, Nova Zembla to Greenland, and the coast 

 of northern Norway, 



The surface of the zooecium is somewhat ribbed, but the 

 ribs do not extend upon the rostrum, which is strong, bluntly 

 pointed, and not very high (in comparison with R. costata). 



