FERNHOLM and HUBBS: WESTERN ATLANTIC HAGFISHES OF THE GENVS EPTATRETUS 



Diagnosis. — An Eptatretus with six (rarely seven) 

 gill apertures. Total cusp count 48-52, with three 

 teeth fused in outer and two in inner row of teeth 

 (Figure 2). Slime pores 84-92. 



Description. — E. springeri is a large hagfish; the 

 16 available specimens range from 410 to 590 mm 

 with the mean about 500 mm. The five sexually 

 mature females were 500 mm or longer. Eggs in 

 the most mature female, 526 mm, are about 10 x 

 36 mm. 



Only 1 of our 16 specimens had the sixth left gill 

 aperture opening separately in front of the 

 pharyngo-cutaneous aperture (cf. E. burgeri with 

 10% of the animals showing this condition accord- 

 ing to Dean 1904). Two animals had an extra gill 

 aperture on the right side and one an extra on the 

 left side. Of these three, two had an extra seventh 

 gill pouch on the right side and one had an extra 

 seventh pouch on each side; the extra pouches 

 were all more or less reduced in size. 



The tongue muscle typically overlies gill 



pouches 1-3, and the aorta divides between gill 

 pouches 4 and 5. 



The color of our specimens is dark brownish 

 purplish to very light brown; the eyespots are not 

 plainly visible. 



Distribution. — Eptatretus springeri has been 

 found only in the northeastern part of the Gulf of 

 Mexico (Figure 1) at depths between 410 and 576 

 m, but it must be realized, of course, that inciden- 

 tal capture (by trawling) is hardly adequate for 

 our distributional map. The southernmost record 

 is that of the holotype (USNM 161512). 



Habitat and biology. — Specimens were collected 

 by bottom trawl in March (475 m) and September 

 (465 m) where the habitat temperature was about 

 10° C. It could not be determined whether the 

 animals were in or above the substrate, which 

 seemed to be composed of blue or gray mud. At 

 least six of the specimens were caught during day- 

 time. Some females contained ripe eggs (21-41 



FIGURE 4.— Eptatretus sp. A (MCZ 40370). Scale in centimeters. 



75 



