A PRELIMINARY ACCOUNT OF THE MARINE 



ANNELIDS OF THE PACIFIC COAST, WITH 



DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES. 



BY HERBERT P. JOHNSON, Ph. D., 



Assistant Professor of Zoology, University of California. 



Plates V-X. 



Part I. The Euphrosynid^e, Amphinomid^e, Palmy- 

 ridtE, Polynoim:, and Sigalionid^e. 



The marine Annelids of the western sea-board of our 

 country have received but little attention, and by far the 

 greater number of the species remain unknown to science. 

 Any work done upon this group in this region, even at this 

 late day, must necessarily have the character and limita- 

 tions of pioneer work. It is certainly an interesting rev- 

 elation of the haphazard nature of zoological exploration 

 to find that much more is known about the Polychasta in the 

 most remote regions of the earth, in the farthest north and 

 the farthest south, in the East Indies and the South Seas, than 

 along the easily accessible shore of a great civilized nation. 

 No apology, therefore, need be offered for the preponder- 

 ance of attention here given to such preliminary matters as 

 descriptions of new species, distribution, habits, and other 

 details of the natural history of the group. It is the writer's 

 intention to present the entire order Polychasta, as rep- 

 resented on our shores, thus in outline, and concurrently 

 or subsequently to fill in the picture with as much of 

 embryological and histological detail as possible. The 

 present publication is in every sense a prodromus of a 

 more extensive work, which will require many years to 

 complete. 



Notices of marine Annelids of the Pacific Coast have 

 been few and meager. The earliest collection of Annelids 



1 153 ] December 7, 1S97. 



