FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 79, NO. 1 



Station 4338, 24°18' N, 83°18' W, depth 380 m, 

 bottom temperature 8.9° C; SIO 76-250 (formerly 

 UMML 15042), 2 (385, 395 mm), 29 July 1963, 

 Oregon station 4346, 24°28' N, 83°29' W, depth 

 380 m; USNM 161513,^ 1 (332 mm), 28 April 1951, 

 1630-1817 h, Oregon station 321, 29°27' N, 87°19' 

 W, depth 400 m, bottom temperature 10° C; USNM 

 218398, 1 (358 mm), 23 June 1969, Oregon II sta- 

 tion 10643, 29°30' N, 87°09' W, depth 400 m. 



Diagnosis.— An Eptatretus with six (rarely five) 

 gill apertures. Total cusp count 46-54, with three 

 teeth fused in both outer and inner rows of teeth. 

 Slime pores 74-82. A thin whitish middorsal 

 stripe. 



Description. — This is a relatively short and stout 

 species of Eptatretus, maturing at a small size 

 (none of our 17 specimens exceeds 400 mm). Our 

 shortest specimens are two sexually mature 

 males, 223 mm each, and a ripe female, 310 mm, 

 extremely swollen with 12 eggs, each measuring 

 about 10 X 31 mm. An inconspicuous ventral fin 

 fold begins well behind the last gill aperture and 

 extends backward to the cloaca. The tongue mus- 

 cle overlies the first three or four gill pouches and 

 the aorta branches between pouches 5 and 6. 



Eptatretus minor and E. springeri are sympatric 

 in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico (Figure 1). 

 There are important differences between them. 

 The pattern of fused teeth is 3/3 inE. minor and 

 3/2 in E. springeri (Figure 2). There may be a 

 difference in the relative trunk lengths, E. 

 springeri being longer. This difference is reflected 

 in the nonoverlapping counts of trunk and total 

 slime pores. The relative length of the branchial 

 region tends to be greater inE. minor. In preserved 

 material £J. minor is usually pale in color, while £. 

 springeri is darker. From the material available it 

 appears that E. minor lives at shallower depths, 

 300-400 m, than E. springeri, 420-730 m. The 

 thin, light middorsal stripe, evident on most 

 species ofE. minor, and the conspicuously long, 

 laterally protruding barbels may be good field 

 characters for that species. In contrast with other 

 field species of Eptatretus, neither £. springeri nor 

 E. minor has a conspicuous lighter patch of skin 

 overlying the eye. 



Distribution. — All but 2 of our 17 specimens are 

 from the Dry Tortugas grounds in the archipelago 



••"Additional material" of Bigelow and Schroeder (1952) and 

 labelled paratype of Paramyxine springeri. 



80 



extending westerly from the Florida Keys (Figure 

 1). The distributional pattern may be due, at least 

 to some extent, to the massive exploratory trawl- 

 ing activities carried out by federal research ves- 

 sels to monitor the population of the royal red 

 shrimp, Pleoticus robustus, in that area. The two 

 records outside this area are the 338 mm specimen 

 described by Bigelow and Schroeder (1952) and 

 one of 358 mm from Oregon II station 10643. These 

 two northernmost records indicate an overlap in 

 distribution of E. minor and E. springeri in the 

 northeasternmost part of the Gulf of Mexico. The 

 depth ranges, however, do not overlap. 



Habitat and biology. — The bottom temperature in 

 the area of E. minor is about 8.9°-11.5° C, and 

 although two stations list coral as bottom type, 

 they also include mud, where the hagfish probably 

 were caught. One station lists sand and gravel as 

 bottom type which would be less suitable for the 

 animal ifE. minor usually digs into a muddy bot- 

 tom, as does E. burgeri (Fernholm 1974). The 

 specimen from that station might have been 

 caught when swimming above the substrate, as is 

 likely, since the trawl haul {Oregon 1026) was 

 taken during the night when hagfish tend to be 

 most active (Fernholm 1974). An indication of in- 

 creased night activity may also be found in the fact 

 that the only two hauls that took three or more 

 specimens [Oregon 1009 and Silver Bay 1190) were 

 taken at night or in early morning. 



Some females contained ripe eggs (25-33 mm) in 

 April, June, July, September, October, and 

 November; thus the population presumably 

 spawned throughout the year. 



Considering the economic importance of the 

 shrimp fishery in the areas where E. minor and E. 

 springeri occur, and recent suggestions that 

 Myxine glutinosa is an active predator on pandalid 

 shrimps (Shelton 1978), a detailed investigation 

 on occurrence and ecology of these hagfishes 

 might be of value. 



Etymology. — The name minor, small, refers to the 

 small size of mature specimens in our samples of 

 E. minor, as compared with those ofE. springeri. 



Eptatretus multtdens, new species 

 Figure 8, Table 2 



Holotype: USNM 218401, a male, 600 mm long, 

 from Oregon II station 11299, 12°52 ' N, 70°43 ' W, 

 510 m depth, 23 November 1970. 



