GAMMARIDEAN AMPHIPODA 7 



surface samples in the low tide zone was sparse, poorly diverse, and 

 monotonous, in resemblance to samples from Goleta and Pt. Dume. 



Middle area.- — The coast between Cayucos and Goleta includes, 

 according to geographers, portions of both middle and southern 

 California. Pt. Conception, the well known biogeographic boundary 

 between cold- and warm-temperate waters, is located in the middle 

 of this coastal segment. Much of the shore between Cayucos and 

 Goleta is inaccessible to humans because of military restrictions and 

 the barring of access roads by gates of privately owned cattle ranches. 

 Where public roads do reach the sea, the intertidal is usually composed 

 of sand or cobble beaches often heavily pounded by surf and largely 

 devoid of flora. Much of the apparently rocky coast (according to 

 maps) between Point Conception and Goleta is drowned in sand, 

 so that no rich collecting site typical of Cayucos or Corona del Mar 

 has been sampled there. The Goleta substrate supports surf grass 

 but the site has no barrier rocks, islets, lagoons, tidepools, or other 

 structures associated with dense floras. Hence, the very interesting 

 possibility of studying the kilometer-by-kilometer change in fauna 

 on either side of an important environmental boundary has not been 

 feasible because of the lack of similar substrates. Perhaps an im- 

 poverished locality north of Pt. Conception and similar to that of 

 Goleta could be found and faunal comparisons could be made but 

 numerous indicator species presumably would not occur in such 

 impoverished sites. 



Southern area. — Three localities from north to south, Pt. Dume, 

 Corona del Mar, and La Jolla, represent the southern Californian 

 coast. Pt. Fermin, a locality between Pt. Dume and Corona del 

 Mar, might have been sampled but for the knowledge that since 

 1947 its fauna and flora have been altered by an outfall sewer and 

 the extensive collecting by "holiday naturalists." 



The locality known provincially as "Little Corona del Mar" is 

 rather well known to local naturalists as a rich intertidal area with 

 sufficient seaward protection to provide a few tidepools, several 

 overhanging ledges, surge channels, and a diverse biota with unusually 

 conspicuous sponge masses. In the writer's opinion, as based on 

 observations between 1947 and 1962, the site at Corona del Mar 

 has not been affected by human inroads as seriously as that at Pt. 

 Fermin, although both are frequented by numerous collectors and 

 biology classes. Corona del Mar appears to be a richer area than any 

 at Laguna Beach, a few kilometers to the south where Vinnie Ream 

 Stout (1912, 1913) made her collections and established the type 

 localities of several Pacific species. 



The poorly protected Pt. Dume locality is on a massive headland 

 pounded by heavy surf; it lacks seaward reefs and is composed largely 



280-102 0-69— 2 



