A FEW FACTS CONCERNING THE RELATION- 

 SHIPS AND REPRODUCTION OF SOME 

 BERING SEA TUNICATES. 



WM. E. RITTER. 



While President Jordan was engaged, as commissioner in 

 charge of the fur-seal investigations for 1896, in studying 

 the natural history of the seals of the Pribilof Islands, he 

 collected a considerable number of tunicates. These he kindly 

 intrusted to me for study. They proved to be so interesting 

 that during his second summer's work (1897) in the same 

 capacity he encouraged the enthusiastic young zoologists, 

 R. E. Snodgrass, A. W. Greeley, and Trevor Kincaid, who 

 accompanied him, to give particular attention to collecting 

 these animals. The result was a large, well-preserved collec- 

 tion, the study of which contributes substantially, in several 

 directions, to our knowledge of the group. These contri- 

 butions will appear in detail as a part of the final report of 

 the scientific investigations made by the commission, to be 

 published later by the United States Government. Some 

 of the facts brought to light are, however, of sufficient con- 

 sequence to make worth while their publication in advance 

 of the report itself. I consequently present them here. As 

 indicated by the title of the note, they relate to the affinities 

 of the Bering Sea tunicate fauna and to the reproduction of 

 some of the species studied. 



The collection contains eleven species, ten of which are new 

 to science. These are distributed among seven genera in the 

 following way : Boltenia, Styela, Aplidiopsis, and Synoicum, 

 each one species ; Dendrodoa and Polyclinum, each two species ; 

 and Amarotcciunty three species. So far as I am able to deter- 

 mine, no tunicates have before now been described from this 

 portion of the world, the northern species hitherto known hav- 

 ing come from the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans, mostly 



