Crustacea from Palmyra and Fanning 

 Islands 



By 

 Charles Howard Edmondson 



INTRODUCTION 



From a geographical point of view the atolls of Palmyra and Fanning 

 in the north equatorial region of the Pacific Ocean belong to the same 

 group of islands, a group which also includes Washington and Christmas 

 Islands in addition to Kingman Reef. This short chain of atolls with a 

 northwest-southeast trend is somewhat parallel with the Hawaiian Group 

 but about one thousand miles south of the latter and in close proximity to 

 the equator. 



Of the four main islands Palmyra is the most northern and western 

 with a position of 5° 49' 4" N. Lat. and approximately 162° 11' 30" W. 

 Long., and Christmas Island is the most eastern and also nearest the equa- 

 tor, being 1° 57' N. Lat. and 157° 27' W. Long. Fanning Island lies about 

 145 miles northwest of Christmas Island in latitude 3° 51' 25", and 66 miles 

 northwest of Fanning is Washington Island with Palmyra 126 miles to the 

 northwest of it. Kingman Reef, of coral formation and very small area 

 exposed above the surface of the ocean, is about 40 miles north of Palmyra. 



Although Fanning Island was discovered in 1798 and Palmyra Island 

 in 1802 very little reliable information regarding either of them was avail- 

 able until recent times, and it has only been within the past few years that 

 efforts have been made to carry out comprehensive scientific investigations 

 of these typically mid-Pacific atolls. 



The earliest contribution to the biology of the islands of this group was 

 made in 1877^^ based on material collected by Dr. Thomas H. Streets and 

 Dr. William H. Jones, surgeons in the United States Navy, during a sur- 

 vey of the islands of the North Pacific by the United States ship Ports- 

 mouth in 1873-74. This systematic report includes 13 species of plants, 13 

 of birds, 36 of fishes and 10 of crustaceans collected at Palmyra, Washing- 

 ton, Fanning and Christmas Islands. That a larger collection of invertebrate 

 fauna was made at this time is indicated by Dr. Streets when he says" 

 "Excepting the crustaceans, the invertebrate portion of the collection is 

 excluded from this bulletin." 



' Streets, Thomas H., Contributions to the natural history of the Hawaiian and 

 Fanning Islands and Lower California : Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 7, 1877. 

 ^ Op. cit., footnote, p. 7. 



