8 GEORGE V SESSIONAL PAPER No. 38a A. 1918 



XVI. 



HYDROIDS OF EASTERN CANADA. 



By C. McLean Frasf.r, Ph.D., Curator of the Pacific Biological Station, 



Departure Bay, B.C. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Since the early days of the Geological Survey explorations, lists of hydroids have 

 appeared in connection with those of other inA^ertebrata. As in these instances the 

 hydroids that appeared accidentally in the general collection were examined in con- 

 nection with this general material or sent away for examination, there were seldom 

 many species in the list. Verrill identified many of the species and collected in the 

 Bay of Fundy and the gulf of St. Lawrence and his reports, although somewhat scat- 

 tered were the most valuable previous to 1901, when Whiteaves, in his " Catalogue of 

 the Marine Invertebrata of Eastern Canada," gave a comprehensive list including all 

 the species that had been reiwrted to that time. Since 1901 two lists have been pub- 

 lished; the one by Stafford, in his "Fauna of the Atlantic Coast," which appeared 

 in " Contributions to Canadian Biology," 1912, and the other my own list of the 

 " Hydroids of Nova Scotia " in 1913. Certain references have also been made to 

 Eastern Canadian distribution in the second and third parts of Xutting's monograph, 

 published in 1904 and 1915, resi>ectively. 



In the meantime, collecting has been continued in connection with the Atlantic 

 station, now at St. Andrews, N.B. The material accumulated was sent to me by 

 Dr. A. G. Huntsman, with the reqviest that I make an examination of it. It was of 

 much interest to find it a most comprehensive collection, as shown by the fact that 

 from it 79 species have been determined, while Whiteaves' list included but 58, Staf- 

 ford's 69, six of which have neither name nor description, and my Xova Scotia list 50. 



In some instances there is some doubt as to the validity of certain species. 

 Stimpson named some species without giving figure or adequate description and A. 

 Agassiz did the same. Some of these difficulties were straightened out by contempor- 

 aries, but with others there is still some confusion. Taking all together, 112 species 

 have been determined with reasonable assurance, although in two or three cases, men- 

 tioned in the text, there is still some possibility of synonymy. The six unnamed species 

 of Stafford's are not included in this number. In listing the hydroids in this latest 

 collection, it is as well to include all, to bring the whole list from the eastern coasts of 

 Canada to date. 



Some jSTewfoundland locations are given but these are all on the gulf of St. Law- 

 rence side. No attempt has been made to include the species reported north of the 

 strait of Belle Isle. 



Of the 112 species, 16 are reported for the first time in this area, but only one of 

 these, Bimeria hrevis, is described as new to science. The others are: Dicoryne con- 

 ferta, Garveia g^'oenlandica, Eudendrium album, Eudendrium annulatum, Tuhularia 

 spectahilis, Campanularia gigante-a, Clytio, cylindrica, Clytia edwardsi, Ohelia articu- 

 lata, Opercularella puniila, Stegopoma plicatile, Hebella pocillum, Sertularia corni- 

 cina, Antennularia americana, Plumidaria setaceoides. 



The purpose of the paper is to gi^^e a complete list of species of hydroids that 

 have been reported from the waters along the eastern coasts of Canada, with the dis- 

 tribution of each in this area, to give a synonymy which will include that given with 

 the original description and one or more others where good descriptions or figures 

 appear and all the I'eferences in connection with points in this area and to give an 

 account of any new or important point noted. 



38a— 22i 



