2 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 2 58 



fornia. Many of the Californian taxa were first described from those 

 areas. Some subintertidal Amphipoda stray into intertidal zones so 

 that some of the offshore benthic literature must be considered also. 

 The literature is small in comparison to that of the British Isles, for 

 instance, and the resulting paucity of distributional records results 

 in a scanty zoogeographic knowledge. 



The first eastern Pacific aquatic Amphipoda later to be found 

 living in California were described by Dana (1853) from Puget Sound, 

 the collections resulting from the U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838- 

 42. Those species are now cited as Parapleustes pugettensis (Dana) 

 and Anisogammarus pugettensis (Dana). Following that, in 1854, 

 Dana described one more aquatic species, Allorchestes angustus, from 

 Californian collections made by Dr. John L. LeConte. Stimpson 

 (1856, 1857, 1864) established several species from the eastern Pacific 

 Ocean, some having been collected in or near San Francisco Bay. Those 

 species now recognized in California are Ampelisca pugetica, Ampithoe 

 humeralis, Anisogammarus confervicolus, Corophium spinicorne, and 

 Hyale plumulosa. Gammarus subtener has since been determined to be 

 a synonym of Melita appendiculata, but four other species have not 

 been identified subsequently: Allorchestes seminuda, Amphithonotus 

 occidentalism A. septemdentatus, and Phoxus grandis. 



Bate (1858) described Ampithoe lacertosa from "Arctic Seas." 

 Subsequently, this giant species (20+ mm. long) has been found on 

 both sides of the north Pacific Ocean as far south as Japan and Baja 

 California. Boeck (1871), in a paper remarkably detailed for its time, 

 described and figured 5 (4 new) species, of which Cerapus rapax 

 Stimpson (1857) has been removed to Ericthonius brasiliensis (Dana), 

 Podocerus californicus has been fused with Jassa falcata (Montagu), 

 Metopa esmarki has been transferred to Mesometopa, Paramphithoe 

 Bairdi has been synonymized with Parapleustes pugettensis (Dana), 

 and Amphithoe Stimpsoni has been considered to be a synonym of 

 Ampithoe lacertosa Bate. Harford (1877) described Dexamine scitulus 

 from Bahia Magdalena, Baja California, and his taxon is now believed 

 to be a synonym of Ampithoe lacertosa. 



The early works of Dana, Stimpson, Bate, Boeck, and Harford 

 were confined to a period of about 25 years, following which more than 

 20 years elapsed before further treatments of eastern Pacific Am- 

 phipoda were to be published. Although several of Stimpson's species 

 have not been recognized subsequently, all of those described by 

 early workers were characterized by their large body size and/or their 

 abundance. Even Stimpson's unrecognized species, believed to be a 

 Hyale, a Pleustes, a Melita, and a large Paraphoxus, must be relatively 

 large for amphipods in the area concerned. The recording of Ampithoe 



