January, 2001 SCAMIT Newsletter Vol. 19, No. 9 SUBJECT: Lumbrinerids along with a Special Presentation on Ophiuroids and ecotoxicological research GUEST SPEAKER: Larry Lovell & Dr. Dimitri Deheyn DATE: 9 April 2001 TIME: 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p. m. LOCATION: Scripps Instituion of Oceanography Benthic Invertebrate Collections Area The next meeting topic will be Lumbrineridae, presented and led by Larry Lovell. Larry will be presenting the results of his expert examination of the B’98 lumbrinerids. We will also be treated to a talk by Dr. Dimitri Deheyn entitled “Shedding Light on the Subject of Pollution: could bioluminescence of brittlestars be used in ecotoxicological research?” Dr. Deheyn’s series of papers on brittlestar bioluminescence over the past years have often been included in the New Literature section of the Newsletter. This should be a very stimulating presentation, and will give us a chance to talk to him directly. Come, and bring your specimens of lumbrinerids - both the occasional intact specimens, and the more typical fragmentary ones - for possible examination at the meeting. Myrianida pachycera (Augener) This will be a full day. Photo by Arne Nygren For further directions please visit the SCAMIT website. FUNDS FOR THIS PUBLICATION PROVIDED, IN PART BY THE ARCO FOUNDATION, CHEVRON, USA, AND TEXACO INC. SCAMIT Newsletter is not deemed to be valid publication for formal taxonomic purposes. January, 2001 SCAMIT Newsletter Vol. 19, No. 9 WORKING KNOWLEDGE ennui and return your ballots with your votes and comments, despite the nature of this Two of the largest POTW dischargers in election. The candidate statements and ballot Southern California have job opportunities for are included in this newsletter. SCAMIT readers. Two biologist positions have closed at the County Sanitation Districts NEW LITERATURE of Los Angeles County, with interviews very soon. The City of San Diego currently has a Animals with complex life-cycles provide a position for an entry level Marine Biologist rich breeding ground for misinterpretation and listed on the SCAMIT website. The response misunderstanding among those of us who must to this offering will be establishment of a list of try and identify them in our daily lives. qualified applicants who will be considered for Perhaps foremost among these are the the current posting and any others that arise in hydrozoan Cnidaria, whose alternation of the next year or so. generations has produced so much confusion that entire taxonomic hierarchies have been Most of us will have one or more new placed in competition. Bavestello et al (2000) compatriots as a result of these position discuss a further complication to an already availabilities. Hopefully these fresh faces will difficult situation, morph reversibility. This prove to be active participants in SCAMIT. usually involves a regressive transformation of the medusa phase into a polyp phase without ELECTIONS going through sexual reproduction. Such Once again we are faced with an uncontested changes are often produced by unusual election. No new candidates have been environmental conditions. The usual result is a proposed, or have volunteered to run in polyp similar to, but not identical with, the opposition to the current slate of officers. polyp which originally liberated the medusa. Fortunately, all of the current officers have Research is continuing, but we should be alert consented to run for an additional term. They to this possible complication of an already are ably serving the organization, and their murky identification area. willingness to continue is admirable, but they For reasons unknown taxonomic subjects tend must be getting a bit tired after years (in one to go through research and/or publication case decades) of service to the membership. If cycles. Currently there is a cycle of unusual this trend continues we may soon be placed in activity in the publication of articles on a the uncomfortable, and I believe generally under-treated area; the taxonomy of unprecedented, situation of having no aplacophore mollusks. In this group candidates for one or more offices should one investigations from all over the world have or more of the serving officers be unable or bearing on the California fauna because the unwilling to run again. Please consider this, literature as a whole is not very rich and every and reconsider the possibility of serving as an little bit has the potential of assisting us with officer during the next year. Hopefully our our local fauna. 2002 election will embrace more diversity of choice for the membership. Voting has always Garcia-Alvares, Urgorri & Salvini-Plawen been on a par with or below levels of (2000a) describe new species of Dorymenia, a participation in the U.S. as a whole, and those genus represented in the California fauna, from elections are vigorously contested. How the South Shetland Islands. They also (2000b) interesting can it be to vote on a pro forma describe a new Sputoherpia from Spanish basis? We need more participation, not less, waters. This later genus is not represented and a hard fought campaign might actually locally, although two other genera in the provide some. Please try to overcome your Amphimeniidae, Platymenia and Pachymenia, 2 January, 2001 SCAMIT Newsletter Vol. 19, No. 9 are represented in deeper Californian waters. useful discussion of the various lines of Scheltema & Ivanov (2000) provide an evidence. Those interested in further examination of the Prochaetodermatidae from information on the group should visit the European waters. We do have a local aplacophore homepage at: representative in southern California, Spathoderma californica (Schwabl 1963), and http://www.whoi.edu/science/B/aplacophora/ a number of species from further north in the With the recent WEMAP sampling, regional Eastern Pacific. In this group the gross monitoring continued the trend of intrusion appearance of the organisms can be used as a into shallower waters begun during B’98 cue in their speciation, and one of the most sampling. It behooves us, therefore, to begin to informative aspects of the present paper is its consider the structure of estuaries in which we fine drawings of the gestalt of whole animals. may soon begin, or are now sampling. Emmett Fourteen members of the family, distributed et al (2000) provide a broad framework for among five genera, are treated in detail. This such consideration and treat all of the estuaries neatly complements and extends Scheltema’s on the west coast. Their paper provides a earlier treatment of the family. concise summary of general knowledge of In addition to description of new species, the estuaries along our coast and provides a entire basis of the taxonomy of the group is bibliography of articles describing, in more being reassessed. Scheltema & Schander detail, individual bodies of water. (2000), for instance, reexamine character states JANUARY 8 MEETING MINUTES of a variety of species in describing seven new species from various geographic areas. They The meeting was held at the San Diego Marine emphasize characters of hard parts and body Biology Laboratory. President Ron Velarde form as valuable analytic characters and began the business portion of the meeting. He provide a cladistic analysis of the considered handed the floor over to Vice-President Leslie taxa. None of these species are local, but Harris who gave us the upcoming schedule of several of the considered groups are meetings. represented locally, and the discussion of characters is quite useful. The next meeting is a 2-day meeting, February 12 and 13, and will be held at the Los Angeles Debate has been often joined concerning the County Museum of Natural History. We will appropriate status and relationships of the be discussing 2 large polychaete families from aplacophores, including the nature of the the 7th volume of the MMS Atlas, the relationship between the two main types of Ampharetidae and Terebellidae. animals combined under that term - the ventral groove bearing solenogasters, and the posterior The March meeting will be held on March 19 gill bearing caudofoveaceans. There are two at the San Diego Marine Biology Laboratory. main “sides” in this debate; one maintaining Guest speaker Karen Green will attend as we the primitivity of the group, and the other discuss the capitellid chapter of Volume 7 of suggesting it is advanced with its unique body the MMS Atlas. Karen has done extensive derived by paedomorphosis. Haszprunar work on polychaete staining patterns and we (2000) revisits and summarizes this debate and are fortunate to have her participation at this provides a new cladistic analysis. The present meeting. paper will not end the debate, but provides a 3 January, 2001 SCAMIT Newsletter Vol. 19, No. 9 The April meeting will be held on April 9 and which 1 stolon is produced at a time and is to be held at Scripps Institute of gemmiparity in which many stolons bud off Oceanography. Our guest speaker will be from the posterior of the adult. For example, Larry Lovell and he will elaborate on the epigamy is found in Autolytus noroi and A. lumbrinerids from the Bight‘98 project. magnus. Anterior scissiparity is found in Proceraea spp, Procerastea spp and Virchowa Please inform Leslie Harris if you have visiting spp. Posterior scissiparity is found in Autolytus colleagues who are coming to town and would inermis. Gemmiparity is found in Autolytus like to be a guest speaker at a SCAMIT spp and Myrianida spp. meeting. Arne gave us some general advice to use when Dot Norris circulated several articles that she examining autolytines. He said that it is best to found in Current Contents. They were: Bhaud view live material when possible. He (2000), Olive et al (2000), Pleijel (1999), discussed the various morphological groups of Rozbaczylo & Simonetti (2000), Jha et al autolytines and listed which characters are (2000). most useful in identifying and separating the Leslie reported that the Los Angeles County groups.