Nemertean collections at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History: type specimens and vouchers for Wesley R. Coe's 1940 publication

Abstract

The Department of Invertebrate Zoology at the SantaBarbara Museum of Natural History houses a smallcollection of nemerteans from the Eastern PacificOcean. At present the collection containsapproximately 2000 specimen lots stored in alcohol. The historically important elements of the collectionwere obtained in transfers from the Allan HancockFoundation of the University of Southern California,the Kerkoff Marine Laboratory of the CaliforniaInstitute of Technology, and the Benthic InvertebrateMuseum of Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Thespecimens in these three collections voucher manyof the species treated in Wesley R. Coe's 1940revision of the nemerteans of the west coast of theAmericas. Type specimens were located for 4 of the 5new species group taxa and for 1 new subspecies grouptaxon erected in that publication. The Allan HancockFoundation material utilized by Coe was collected inthe 1930's during Pacific expeditions of the R/V Velero III. The material assembled by George andNettie MacGinitie at the Kerkoff lab contained anumber of specimens collected during the same timeperiod. The specimens from Coe's material at ScrippsInstitution of Oceanography were collected by TheodoreBullock and students in central California in 1939.