FOREWORD 



This issue of the "Circulars" is part of a subseries entitled "Marine Flora and Fauna 

 of the Northeastern United States." This subseries will consist of original, illustrated, 

 modern manuals on the identification, classification, and general biology of the estuarine 

 and coastal marine plants and animals of the Northeastern United States. Manuals 

 will be published at irregular intervals on as many taxa of the region as there are 

 specialists willing to collaborate in their preparation. 



The manuals are an outgrowth of the widely used "Keys to Marine Invertebrates 

 of the Woods Hole Region," edited by R. I. Smith, published in 1964, and produced under 

 the auspices of the Systematics-Ecology Program, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods 

 Hole, Mass. Instead of revising the "Woods Hole Keys," the staff of the Systematics- 

 Ecology Program decided to expand the geographic coverage and bathymetric range and 

 produce the keys in an entirely new set of expanded publications. 



The "Marine Flora and Fauna of the Northeastern United States" is being prepared 

 in collaboration with systematic specialists in the United States and abroad. Each man- 

 ual will be based primarily on recent and ongoing revisionary systematic research and 

 a fresh examination of the plants and animals. Each major taxon, treated in a separate 

 manual, will include an introduction, illustrated glossary, uniform originally illustrated 

 keys, annotated check list with information when available on distribution, habitat, life 

 history, and related biology, references to the major literature of the group, and a system- 

 atic index. 



These manuals are intended for use by biology students, biologists, biological ocean- 

 ographers, informed laymen, and others wishing to identify coastal organisms for this 

 region. In many instances the manuals will serve as a guide to additional information 

 about the species or the group. 



Geographic coverage of the "Marine Flora and Fauna of the Northeastern United 

 States" is planned to include organisms from the headwaters of estuaries seaward to 

 approximately the 200-m depth on the continental shelf from Maine to Virginia, but 

 may vary somewhat with each major taxon and the interests of collaborators. When- 

 ever possible representative specimens dealt with in the manuals will be deposited in 

 reference collections of the Gray Museum, Marine Biological Laboratory, and other 

 universities and research laboratories in the region. 



After a sufficient number of manuals of related taxonomic groups have been pub- 

 lished, the manuals will be revised, grouped, and issued as special volumes. These vol- 

 umes will thus consist of compilations of individual manuals within phyla such as the 

 Coelenterata, Arthropoda, and Mollusca, or of groups of phyla. 



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