WIGLEY and BL RNS, DISTRIBUTION AND BIOLOC.V OF MYSIDS 



f 



NEW 

 YORK 



Boreomysis tridens 



Eucopia grimaldii 



FiciRE 2. — (ieographic distribution of Eucopia grimaldii 

 and rioreomysis tridevs based on specimens in the col- 

 lection at the NMFS Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole. 



north to Norway, across to the Faroe Ishxnds, 

 south and west of Iceland and Greenland, south- 

 ward along the continental slope of North Amer- 

 ica (Tattersall and Tattersall, 1951). Tattersall 

 (1951) lists over 20 records from off the north- 

 east coast of the United States, ransingr as far 

 south as Delaware (lat 38°27' N). 



This species was reported by Verrill (1885) 

 as being common on the continental slope in the 

 western Atlantic. The collections of this mysid 

 reported by Tattersall (1951), all made by the 

 research vessels Albatross, Fish Hairk. and 

 Challenger, reflect its deepwater habitat. 



Our collection contains one sample of this 

 species consisting of three specimens (Burns 

 and Wigley, Table 3). They were taken on the 

 west side of Hydrographer Canyon, located 

 about 130 km southeast of Nantucket, Mass. 

 (Figure 2). The dejjth of water at this loca- 

 tion is 102 m. Its occurrence at this depth and 

 on bottom sediments of silty sand are charac- 

 teristic for this species. Two specimens 15.0 



and l(i.5 mm in length are immature; a 26-mm 

 specimen is an adult male. 



Subfamily GASTROSACCINAE 

 Bowmaniella portoriceiish Bacescu, 1968 



B. portorkensis is morphologically very sim- 

 ilar to B. johnsoiii (Tattersall). A close exam- 

 ination of pleopod 3 in male specimens and of 

 the uropod and the jjosterior part of the caraiiace 

 in all s]Decimens was required for reliable dif- 

 ferentiation of these two species. B. portori- 

 censis is a subtropical species that has Ijeen re- 

 ported by Bacescu (1968) off the southeastern 

 coast of the United States between Beaufort, 

 N.C., and northern Florida. Although this spe- 

 cies was known in only a few locations at the 

 time of Bacescu's report, it is undoubtedly more 

 common than these few i)ublished i-ecords sug- 

 gest, as indicated by the relatively large number 

 of sami)les in the NMFS collection. Its rather 

 small size (up to 11-mm body length) and its 

 occurrence in areas that have not yet been thor- 

 oughly studied jiresumably have contrilnited to 

 the paucity of collections. 



The NMFS collection contains 100 specimens 

 of B. portoriceiiHis from 46 samples, all of which 

 are from off the southeastern coast of the United 

 States (Figure 3; Burns and Wigley, Table 4). 

 The northernmost samiiles were taken ai^proxi- 

 mately 90 km north of Cape Hatteras, N.C., at 

 lat 36° N. The southei'n limit of our samples is 

 15 km south of Ft. Pierce, Fla., at lat 27°20' N. 

 All of these samjiles were collected within 125 km 

 of the shoreline. Water depths at which they 

 occurred I'ange from 9 to 56 m, and most of them 

 were t;'.ken at dejiths between 15 and 39 m. 



Body lengths average ().9 mm; the range in 

 length is 3.1 to 10.0 mm. 



This species is chiefl.y an inhabitant of sandy 

 sediments. Sand was present at all stations. 

 Shell was a major component at T,r of the sta- 

 tions and a minor component at 26 ''r of the 

 stations where B. portoricensis occurred. 



Seven females, 7.9 to 10 mm in length, from 

 the May and June samples were carrying larvae 

 in the brood iiouch. The numl)er of larvae i)er 

 clutch ranges from 1 (obviously an incomplete 

 Ijrood) to 30. Only the relativel.v advanced 



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