June 19, 195? 
Dr. Kellogg 
Through* Dr. Schmitt 
Charles E. Cutress 
Smithsonisn-Bredin Expedition to the Sooiety Islands and visit at the 
Allan Hancock Foundation of the University of Southern California. 
Fro® March 1?, 1957 to May 26, 185?, I was a member of the Smiths onian— 
are air. Expedition to the Society Islands. My travel schedule was so arranged 
that on the way out two days were spent at the Allan Hancock Foundation of the 
University of Southern California at Los Angeles. There a small collection of 
sea anemones wore superficially examined and those specimens of special interest 
were pat aside for shipment to the U. S. Hational Museum and further study* 
The type of field work engaged in while in the Society Islands was pri- 
marily that of collecting. For my part it involved mainly the collecting of 
Ccelenterates, Eehirioderas, Sponges and Polychaetes. Of these groups of animals, 
only the sea anemones of the phylum Coelenterata are familiar enough to me to 
permit an estimate of the number of species collected. The 20-22 species of sea 
anemones taken on the Smiths onian-Sredin Expedition compares exceedingly well with 
numbers of species taken at several other localities in the Pacific Ocean where I 
have collected. This collection of sea anemones from the Sooiety Islands is im- 
portant from the following standpoints* (1) Until now, we have had in the" collec- 
taons of the U.S.N.M* only one or two specimens of anemones from French Oceania! 
(2) species of anemones taken in this area by the IJ. S. Exploring Expedition, 
1838-42, have been lost and their descriptions and diagnoses have never been ade- 
quately incorporated into modem systematic works! and (3) the Tuamotus said Society 
Islands are peripheral areas of the Indo Jest Pacific zoogeographical region and 
have never been thoroughly explored so far as marine invertebrates are concerned. 
