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FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Figure 69. — Zoogeographical relationships of p\cnogonids occurring in the Gulf of Mexico. 



made by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institu- 

 tion. Common at Tortugas, it occurs also on the 

 shores of various Caribbean islands, the Bahamas, 

 and Bermuda. It is one of the characteristic 

 members of the sargassum fauna of the mid- 

 Atlantic (Timmermann 1932) and occasionally 

 occurs at Woods Hole. But, like the sargassum 

 crab. Planes minutus, this pycnogonid has not 

 been found on the sargassum wliich drifts ashore 



on the Texas and Louisiana coasts, and Tortugas 

 is the only Gulf of Mexico record for both or- 

 ganisms. Anoplodactylus petiolatus, another spe- 

 cies of the mid -Atlantic sargassum, has been 

 collected from Texas sargassum. Another species, 

 Tanystylum orbiculare, common at Woods Hole, 

 has turnefl up on Texas sargassum and is the only 

 sargassum record for this species. All other records 

 for T. orbiculare, scattered along the Atlantic 



