FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 69. NO. 4 



Mass., (Wigley, 1963) the first report of its 

 occurrence outside the north European area. 

 It has also been collected in large numbers from 

 the coast of New Hampshire by Dr. William F. 

 Black (personal communication), and from the 

 Penobscot River (Maine) estuary by Haefner 

 (1969). 



The NMFS collection contains 15 specimens 

 from five samples (Figure 16; Burns and Wig- 

 ley, Table 17), including four specimens from 

 the original seven taken at Barnstable in 1960. 



Figure 16. — Geographic distribution of Praunus flexu- 

 ostis based on specimens at the NMFS Biological Lab- 

 oratory, Woods Hole. 



[The other three specimens from this collection 

 were sent to Dr. Olive S. Tattersall, who very 

 kindly examined them and verified the identi- 

 fication (Burns and Wigley, Table 17; footnote 

 2).] The other samples are also from coastal 

 areas north of Cape Cod, Mass. These were 

 collected along shore at Manomet, Mass.; in the 

 harbor at Nahant, Mass. (by Dr. Nathan W. 

 Riser); at Rye Harbor, N.H. (by Mr. John A. 



Lindsay) ; and from a tide pool on Appledore 

 Island, Isle of Shoals, N.H. (by Mr. Stephen 

 Tonjes). 



This is a shallowwater species commonly 

 found in tide pools and associated with algae or 

 Znstera. All samples in the NMFS collection 

 are from nearshore localities at depths of 5 m 

 or less. The majority of samples were collected 

 by means of a dip net. 



Size range of all NMFS specimens is 15.0 to 

 28.0 mm; males are 15.5 to 19.0 mm and females 

 16.5 to 28.0 mm. Only three immature speci- 

 mens, ranging in length from 15.0 to 16.5 mm, 

 are represented in the collection. Sex ratio of 

 the 12 adult specimens is one male to one female. 



The spawning season for this species in New 

 England waters, based on the one ovigerous and 

 two larvigerous females in the collection, is at 

 least April through November. It may, how- 

 ever, spawn in this region throughout the year, 

 as it does in Europe. The 25.0-mm female from 

 Barnstable. Mass., held 44 eggs in the brood 

 pouch. The 21.0-mm female from Isle of Shoals, 

 N.H., held 39 stage V larvae in the brood pouch. 

 Although the larvigerous female in the Rye 

 Harbor sample contained 19 larvae, the ooste- 

 gites were separated and it appeared to be an 

 incomplete clutch. 



W^hen this species was discovered in North 

 America in 1960, the question arose whether it 

 was a recent immigrant from Europe, or wheth- 

 er it had inhabited this region for hundreds of 

 years but had been overlooked. After the first 

 capture of only seven specimens most considered 

 it a rare species with only a local distribution in 

 New England. Additional information obtained 

 since 1960, however, indicates it is rather widely 

 distributed between Maine and Cape Cod, Mass., 

 and that it is abundant in the Maine-New Hamp- 

 shii'e region. In view of this, and considering 

 the intensive collecting in shallow coastal waters 

 of New England by A. E. Verrill, S. I. Smith, 

 W. Stimpson, and numerous other scientists dur- 

 ing the latter half of the nineteenth century, 

 it is our con.iecture that P. flexnotiu-a is a com- 

 paratively new addition to the New England 

 fauna. Possibly it was transported from Eurojie 

 to a New England port, such as Boston or Ports- 

 mouth. N.H., among fouling organisms on the 



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