UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS 



ZOOLOGY 



Vol. 6, No. 5, pp. I 15-125, 4 text-figures December 4, 1909 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE LABORATORY 



OF THE 



MARINE BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION OF SAN DIEGO. 



XXVII. 4 



THREE SPECIES OF CERIANTHUS FROM 

 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 



BY 



II. B. TORREY AND F. L. KLEEBERGER. 



In 1898, McMurrich 1 described, from a single imperfect speci- 

 men dredged in forty-four fathoms off the coast of Southern 

 California, the problematical C. vas. Nine years later, Gravier 2 

 described a pelagic Cerianthid. sexually mature, which was found 

 in abundance at the surface in the Gulf of California. These 

 appear to be the only published references to the Cerianthids of 

 the waters of Pacific America. 



To this meager record we wish to add the following account 

 of three other species, all from Southern California. The first. 

 which we have called ('. aestuari, is well marked by the small 

 number of tentacles of each kind — never more than thirty-four 

 — and the number and character of the mesenteries. The second, 

 to which the name C. bencdeni 3 has been given, resembles extern- 

 ally C. americanus* and C. membranaceusf but differs from these 



iProc. U. S. Nat. Mus. XVI, p. 119. 

 ^Comptes Rendus Acad. Sc. Paris, T. 135, p. 591, 1902. 

 3For Professor Edouard van Beneden. 



■•See especially McMurrich : Journal of Morphology, IV, p. 131, 1891. 

 sSee von Heider: Sitzungsber, k. k. Akad. Wien, LXXIX. p. 204, L879; 

 Andres: Fauna und Flora des Golfes von Neapel, IX. Die Actinien. 



