Solenogaster Mollusks from Southern California 
£ 
Mathilde Schwabl 1 
The solenogaster mollusks named below 
were collected off southern California by the 
research vessel "Velcro IV” of the University 
of Southern California, Los Angeles, Califor- 
nia, during the course of quantitative surveys 
made along the shelf and slope marine bottoms 
from Santa Barbara, California, to south of the 
Mexican border. Depths of bottoms ranged 
from shallow shelf (about 20 m) to deep off- 
shore basins (about 1800 m). Most station 
numbers referred to in the text have been pub- 
lished in the Pacific Expedition series of the 
Hancock Foundation; they can be consulted 
in volumes 19 and 22. Data for additional sta- 
tion numbers are given in the Appendix to 
this report. The types of all new species and 
duplicates after the first are deposited in the 
collections of the Allan Hancock Foundation 
at the University of Southern California; a 
first set of duplicates is retained by the author. 
Solenogasters have been previously recorded 
from California, based on collections of the 
USS "Albatross,” and described by Heath ( 1911 
and 1918). They were taken during dredging 
operations and the specimens can be only ap- 
proximately located with respect to precise 
place, depth, and kinds of sediments. 
Figures 1 and 2 plot the distributions of 
solenogasters taken from sea bottoms between 
the mainland of California and Santa Catalina 
Island. The dots locate the positions of inter- 
sections; they mark the even-numbered min- 
utes of latitude and longitude, and are about 
2 nautical miles apart. This area is more com- 
pletely detailed in Hartman (1955). A large 
impoverished subsill area in the deepest part 
of the Channel sustains almost no life. The 
surrounding fringe and shelf in shallower 
bottoms supports characteristic kinds of soleno- 
gasters, as indicated by the symbols used in 
the two charts. 
1 Berlin Lichterfelde Kommandantenstrasse 18, Ger- 
many. Manuscript received November 22, 1961. 
The diagnoses of the species require a few 
comments. The illustrations of the spines show 
only typical kinds, as these structures show 
strong individual variations. Nevertheless cer- 
tain features, such as comparative size, being 
strongly keeled or not, and others, remain con- 
stant throughout the species. The small letters, 
a. b, Cj cl, used in the figures, refer to the body 
regions from which the spicules were taken 
and can be ascertained by reference to the en- 
tire figure of Crystallophrisson recisum n. sp. 
I have come to the conviction that the so- 
called subradular organ of the Crystallophris- 
sonidae is primarily the papilla bearing the 
outlets of a third group of salivary glands, 
which up to now has escaped the attention 
of other authors. It is not a sensory organ. A 
small number of gland follicles is situated ven- 
tral !y of the fore-gut and just in front of the 
radula. The cells of these follicles resemble 
those of the lateral salivary glands, which empty 
their secretion through more or less well-defined 
ducts. An unpaired, subradular ganglion is sit- 
uated among these gland follicles and was found 
present in each species examined; therefore, 
it has not been specially mentioned. 
Limifossor fratula, Crystallophrisson nanu- 
lum, and C. scahrum have been described by 
Heath (1911, 1918); for these, abbreviated 
diagnoses are given. 
GENUS Limifossor Heath, 1904 
Type L. talpoides Heath, 1904 
Limifossor fratula Heath, 1911 
Heath, 1911, pp. 44, 72. 
COLLECTIONS: 
2189 (9) in 228 fm, with Crystallophrisson 
hartmani and C. scabrum. 
2190 (1) in 186 fm. 
2218 (1) in 249 fm, with C. hartmani. 
2220 (3) in 180 fm, with C. hartmani and 
C. nanulum . 
261 
