The journals of early European explorers provide inferential evidence for the precontact existence of rice. Examination of 5 independent translations of Pigafetta's journal (the only existing first-hand log of Magellan's voyage) revealed a consistent absence of rice in the list of Chamorro foods. This is in direct contrast to Burney who, for inexplicable reasons, adds rice to Pigafetta's food list. The first detailed description of rice in the Marianas comes from Legazpi in 1565, 44 years after Magellan. If rice was present at the time of initial contact, no unambiguous references were found.

Examples of 'traditional' paddy fields, rice t ypes, and patterns of communal labor are cited as evidence of long term use of rice in the Marianas. Given the rapid decline of the native Chamorro population and the influx of peoples and materials into the Marianas following contact, attempts to draw parallels between prehistoric and postcontact cultural practices is tenuous.

Direct archaeological evidence of rice is rare. Burnt rice husks were found covering a burial eroding from a cave on Asuncion. Typical Chamorro stone and shell artifacts were found in association. No chronological determinations were able to be made.

Three rice-impressed sherds were recovered from a latte site on Rota. The vertical placement of these sherds is open to question and they may be with the historic component of the site. No other direct data have yet been recovered.

Analysis of existing evidence leads us to argue that there are insufficient data relating to prehistoric rice cultivation in the Marianas. We suggest this problem be examined as an hypothesis to be tested archaeologically.

This paper focuses on the contact population of Kosrae, the easternmost island of the Caroline chain. The historical material concerning Kosrae is sufficient to allow a fairly careful evaluation of the contact population estimates. The most important source of information consists of the explorer Lütke's attempt to enumerate the adults of the various districts of the island. By determining and correcting for the likely errors in his count, it is possible to derive a range within which the contact population must have fallen. The results suggest that most estimates of the Kosraen population at contact tended to be low rather than high, and it appears that there was considerable depopulation in the thirty years between contact and the first missionary censuses. Nevertheless, Kosrae was sparsely populated in comparison to other similarly sized islands. This situation is partially explained by evidence that there was considerable depopulation shortly before European contact. This case illustrates that one cannot assume that any specific precontact Pacific population was characterized by either population equilibrium or a tendency toward an optimum size.

There are over one thousand Palauan migrants residing on Guam. They have been able to adapt to life on Guam relatively successfully while continuing to view themselves as Palauans and retaining close ties with Palau. The primary mechanisms in the maintenance of their identity are the Palauan institutions. Similar in many respects to those found in Palau, the migrant institutions have their base in the kinship units, telungalek/kebliil, but vary from the original as accommodation to life on Guam has demanded. These institutions give the migrants a context in which Palauan language and role relationships can be experienced and channels of reciprocity with Palau and among the migrants maintained. They also make adjustment to life on Guam easier by providing a source of financial, social, emotional, and spiritual support to the migrant.

Three species of Freycinetia (F. arborea, F. impavida, and F. baueriana) are found in Eastern Polynesia, defined as the Hawaiian, Marquesan, Society, Cook, Austral, and Tubuai Archipelagoes, and New Zealand. These have been known under various names, which are cited in synonymy. The species F. baueriana exists as two subspecies, one in Norfolk Island, one in new Zealand. Key to species, full literature citations, typification, and nomenclature are presented.

The genus Glycine subgenus Glycine is represented in Taiwan, South China, and the Ryukyu Islands by G. tabacina and G. tomentella. Glycine clandestina has been reported from the Pescadores, Ryukyu and Mariana Islands in the West-Central Pacific. Morphological examination of herbarium material and living collections suggests that those specimens identified as G. clandestina from the Pescadores and Ryukyus are narrow-leaved forms of G. tabacina. Cytological analysis indicates that both broad and narrow-leaved collections of G. tabacina from the area are tetraploid (2n=80). Glycine was collected in the Mariana Islands and found to be G. tabacina, not G. clandestina as previously reported. Morphologically it resembles the broad-leaved G. tabacina which occurs in the Ryukyus and is also tetraploid.

The present report records fourteen species of pontoniine shrimps from Viti Levu, Fiji, of which six are recorded for the first time and one species, Onycocaris seychellensis Bruce, is newly reported from the Pacific Ocean. These additions raise the Fijian pontoniine fauna to 30 species, belonging to 17 genera, 5 of which are monotypic.

Seven species of sea-skaters, marine insects of the genus Halobates, are reported from Micronesia. Nymphs of nearshore species (H. mariannarum, H. flaviventris, H. nereis, H. princeps) are generally found in sheltered waters among mangrove roots and branches, whereas adults are usually found in more open water. Specimens of open-ocean species (H. micans, H. sericeus, H. germanus) may be found washed to shore after storms. Under laboratory conditions, each nymphal stadium of H. mariannarum lasts 12-14 days.

Forty-four species of fishes have been collected in the freshwaters of Palau; of these, nine are new records. Over half belong to the families Gobiidae and Eleotridae.

Microphis cruentus, a freshwater doryrhamphine (trunk-pouch) pipefish, is described from the Dumbea River. This apparent New Caledonian endemic is characterized by having a single opercular ridge, the lateral trunk ridge confluent with the inferior tail ridge, a modal count of 17 trunk rings and by the presence of ocelli on the lateral trunk ridge.

lnterspecific spawning involving a male Centropyge shepardi and a female C. bispinosus was observed at Guam, where C. bispinosus is rare and C. shepardi is ubiquitous. The female C. bispinosus was a member of a harem that included a male and a female of C. shepardi. It has been noted by various authors that hybridization may occur in situations where one species is rare and a closely related species is common. In this paper it is hypothesized that interspecific spawnings usually involve females of the rare species and males of the common species, resulting from constraints imposed by energy expenditure in the production of eggs versus sperm. Females will engage in interspecific spawnings only when conspecific mates are unavailable. Males are less discriminating in their choice of mates.

The Indo-Pacific labrid fish genus Labropsis is characterized by having: thick plicate lips which form a tubular structure when mouth is closed; two pairs of recurved canine teeth anteriorly in upper jaw (the second pair usually half size of first); a canine at corner of mouth; no teeth along side of jaw; dorsal rays IX, 10-12; anal rays Ill, 9-11; pectoral rays usually 14; and a continuous lateral line of 27-49 scales. It consists of six species: L. manabei Schmidt from the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, and Philippines and the following new species: L. alleni from Micronesia and the Indo-Malayan region, readily separated by having 27 lateral-line scales; L. polynesica from islands of French Polynesia and the Cook Islands, distinctive in having the second pair of upper canine teeth nearly as large as the first and 43-47 lateral-line scales; L. xanthonota, which ranges from East Africa to central Oceania, with 46-49 lateral-line scales, the male with an emarginate caudal fin (true also of L. polynesica); L. micronesica, from islands of Micronesia, with 35-40 lateral-line scales; and L. australis from the Solomon, Samoa, Fiji, Loyalty, Tonga Islands, New Hebrides, and Great Barrier Reef which is closely related to L. micronesica, having the same scale and finray counts, but differing in the suborbital scales not extending as far anteriorly, in the shorter ninth dorsal spine, and in having a large black spot at the pectoral base containing a dorsal orange-red spot and a smaller ventral one of the same color (pectoral base of L. micronesica entirely orange-red). L. manabei, a close relative of L. micronesica and L. australis, differs in having one fewer dorsal soft rays (11) and one fewer anal soft rays (10).

The species of Labropsis are all small coral reef fishes (rarely exceeding 100 mm SL). They are proterogynous hermaphrodites, commencing mature life as females. Adults appear to feed principally on coral polyps. The striped juveniles have been observed cleaning other reef fishes.

Length, coloration, and gut contents of 15 specimens of Petroscirtes variabilis from the Philippines were determined. Males were found to be orange-brown and larger than the green females. A variety of sessile benthic organisms, small crustacean appendages, and fish scales were contained in the guts. P. variabilis probably browses its food off the Thalassia substrate with which it is generally associated, and appears to have extended its browsing habits to include the scales of fishes. The large canine teeth of this species seem not to function in feeding.