Composition and Distribution of Macrobenthic Invertebrate Fauna 



171 



pigmentation on the body and appendages. The eyes of 

 most species were brownish-black. The most colorful 

 members of the group were specimens of Erythrops 

 erythrophthalma, which had red eyes and yellow and or- 

 ange color patches on the body. 



Mysids occurred in 41 samples (nearly 4% of the 

 total). Their density averaged 2.5/m 2 , and biomass av- 

 eraged 0.01 g/m 2 (Table 5). 



Geographic Distribution 



Mysids were sparsely distributed in the study area oc- 

 curring in widely separated patches mainly along the 

 Southern New England, Long Island, and New Jersey 

 shores (Fig. 178), and on Georges Bank. Two small 

 enclaves also occurred inshore on the central Maine 

 coast and in the mouth of Saint Mary Bay in western 

 Nova Scotia. 



Average density was low (1-49 individuals/m ) in all 

 localities except for two small patches of moderate 

 density (50-99/m 2 ) south of the northern edge on 

 Georges Bank and a patch of moderately high density, 

 between 100 and 187 individuals/m 2 , on south-central 

 Georges Bank. 



Mysid biomass was typically low (<0. 1-0.9 g/m 2 ) in 

 all areas of occurrence except for one small patch in 

 the region of highest density where biomass barely 

 exceeded 1 g/m 2 . 



Georges Bank was dominant among the standard 

 geographic areas in both measures of mysid abundance 

 (Tables 6, 8; Fig. 179), containing an average density 

 and biomass of 10.6 individuals/m 2 and 0.06 g/m 2 , re- 

 spectively. The other geographic areas contained signifi- 

 cantly lower amounts, ranging from 10 to 100 times less in 

 terms of density and 6 times less in terms of biomass. 



