WESTERN ATLANTIC HAGFISHES OF THE GENUS EPTATRETUS 

 (MYXINIDAE) WITH DESCRIPTION OF TWO NEW SPECIES 



Bo Fernholm^ and Carl L. Hubbs^ 



ABSTRACT 



Recent trawl collections from the continental slopes of the western North Atlantic have yielded three 

 species of the hagfish genus Eptatretus (treated herein) as well as two or three undescribed species of 

 Myxine. 



Eptatretus is accepted as the generic name for most of the multibranchiate myxinids including all the 

 Atlantic species; Paramyxine Dean 1904, is restricted to western Pacific species. 



The documentary material of Paramyxine springeri Bigelow and Schroeder 1952, contains two 

 species, one of which is here described and named Eptatretus minor, new species. The two species are 

 sympatric on the continental slope of the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, but appear to occupy relatively 

 narrow, nonoverlapping depth ranges. Eptatretus multidens, new species, is described from the Carib- 

 bean Sea and Atlantic Ocean off French Guiana. 



The value of tooth counts and the numbers of slime pores is stressed in systematic studies within 

 Eptatretus. 



Bigelow and Schroeder (1952) described 

 Paramyxine springeri from three specimens 

 caught in 1951 in the Gulf of Mexico. The only 

 recognized species o^ Paramyxine at that time was 

 P. atami Dean 1904 (now known to be a composite 

 of two Japanese species, Fernholm unpubl. data). 

 Other species oi Paramyxine , later described from 

 Taiwan (Teng 1958; Shen and Tao 1975) have 

 strengthened the distinctiveness of that genus by 

 having the generic character of crowded gill (or 

 branchial) apertures even more pronounced than 

 in the type-species. 



We redescribe P. springeri and refer it to the 

 genus Eptatretus . We also describe two new species 

 o{ Eptatretus and point out the likely occurrence of 

 at least two additional species of this genus from 

 the midwestern Atlantic. We use the name Epta- 

 tretus for the Atlantic hagfishes with several gill 

 apertures to stress that we believe they represent 

 a phyletic line which is independent of, although 

 similar to, that of the Asian hagfishes of the genus 

 Paramyxine. It is more likely that Eptatretus from 

 the Atlantic represents an offshoot from the west- 

 ern American Eptatretus group than that they are 

 directly related to the Asian Paramyxine. That the 



'Roskilde University, Department of Biology and Chemistry, 

 Box 260, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark. 



^Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, 

 San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093. Carl L. Hubbs died on 30 June 

 1979. 



Manuscnpt accepted July 1980. 



FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 79, NO. 1, 1981. 



western Atlantic species of Eptatretus seem to be 

 restricted to Central American and adjacent 

 waters indicates that they may have crossed be- 

 tween the American continents from the Pacific 

 prior to the appearance of the isthmus. In the 

 western Atlantic there are no records oi Eptatretus 

 outside those shown in Figure 1. On the European 

 and African side of the ocean the only reported 

 captures are those of .B. profundus, E. hexatrema, 

 and E. octatrema, all from South African waters 

 (Barnard 1923, 1950). 



All specimens treated herein were taken by bot- 

 tom trawl, a method which usually produces few 

 hagfishes. No doubt an expedition with baited 

 traps would provide vastly more material that 

 could fill in some of the gaps in the material we 

 have at our disposal. However, the U.S. govern- 

 ment research vessels (Springer and BuUis 1956; 

 Bullis and Thompson 1965; Bayer 1969) that have 

 secured most of our material give us data which 

 are relatively homogeneous and complete, and 

 thus yield some information on the hagfish 

 habitats. 



We show that P. springeri Bigelow and 

 Schroeder includes two species, and describe some 

 new forms of Eptatretus. We also mention here 

 that hagfishes of the genus Myxine have been 

 found in the western Atlantic (Hubbs unpubl. 

 data). They are not yet systematically analyzed, 

 but it is expected that they compose two new 

 species. It thus seems likely that the hagfish fauna 



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