144 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I28 



Class HIRUDINEA 



Only one species of marine leech, Crangonobdella murmanica Selen- 

 sky, was collected. Its host was the large shrimp Sclerocrangon boreas 

 (Phipps). The writer is indebted to Dr. Marvin Clinton Meyer for 

 identifying this leech. Although several species of fish, such as the 

 Arctic cod and sculpins, that might be expected to harbor leeches, 

 were taken, none was found on them. It is believed that marine leeches 

 tend to drop from their hosts when the latter are drawn out of the 

 water, which would account for their apparent scarcity. 



Only three adult specimens of this leech were found : one unat- 

 tached individual in a haul from no to 120 feet on September 15, 

 1943, that included a Sclerocrangon boreas; one from an ovigerous 

 S. boreas that washed ashore on September 30, 1949; and another 

 from the gravel nearby. S. boreas had numerous empty egg capsules 

 of the leech attached to its pleopods. Another female shrimp from 

 no feet (September 8, 1948) had a few empty capsules on its pleo- 

 pods, and one that washed ashore on September 12, 1949, had over 

 50 egg capsules attached to its exoskeleton. A few of these were 

 empty but the majority contained developing worms (one per capsule). 

 Two female S. boreas taken on October 11, 1949, had on their pleo- 

 pods a few capsules containing young leeches. These brownish, circu- 

 lar, convex, chitinous capsules, which are i mm. across, are attached to 

 the host by an adhesive rim. They are blisterlike in appearance. The 

 type specimens of Crangonobdella murmanica, described by Selensky 

 in 1923, were taken from S. boreas off the Murman coast of Russia, 

 northeast of the Kola Peninsula — on the opposite side of the Pole 

 from Point Barrow — and no further record of the species has since 

 appeared. 



Phylum ECHINODERMATA 



About 20 species of echinoderms were collected at Point Barrow: 

 6 asteroids, 8 ophiurans, i echinoid, and 5 (possibly more) holo- 

 thurians. No crinoids were found in the area investigated. Most of 

 the species were abundant, some of them exceedingly so, but, as is 

 true of many species of echinoderms, some of them are gregarious or 

 occur in patches, so that if they are taken at all they are taken in large 

 numbers, unless the dredge happens to pass at the edge of the group. 

 The writer is indebted to the late Austin PI. Clark for identifying the 

 echinoderms. 



