BOTTON and HASKIN: DISTRIBUTION AND FEEDING OF HORSESHOE CRAB 



NEW 

 JERSEY 



Shark River Inlet 



Barnegat Inlet 



Beach Haven 

 nlet 



Absecon In let 



. ,%** H k ATLANTIC 



Great Egg Harbor 



OCEAN 



Corson Inlet 

 Townsends Inlet 



Hereford Inlet 



Cape May 



Nautical mi 



5 10 

 10 20 



Ki lometers 



FIGURE 1. — Map of the New Jersey coast. Filled circles show the locations of stations 

 from which Limulus polyphemus stomach contents were obtained. 



Inlets, and in several areas from to 1.8 km and 3.7 

 to 5.5 km between these two inlets. Two hundred 

 seventy-seven crabs were found in a single dredge 

 tow, 5.4 km off Townsends Inlet. 



In 1976, both time within area and station 

 within time within area were greater sources of 

 variability than area itself (Table 2). The inshore 

 1.8 km from Cape May to Hereford Inlets was sam- 

 pled on 10 and 30 July and again on 4-5 September. 

 The mean number of crabs collected per standard 

 tow on each date was 8.3, 9.3, and 2.1, respectively 



(F = 2.86, 0.10 < P <0.05). There were no signifi- 

 cant differences between sampling dates within 

 any other individual areas. 



1977 Survey 



Most sampling in southern New Jersey was done 

 in June and July, but the areas north of Beach 

 Haven Inlet were sampled in August. Thus, tem- 

 poral variability was confounded with geographic 

 variability. Areas north of Beach Haven Inlet were 



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