1968, Patuxent; Jefferies, 1959, Raritan Bay; Yamazi , 1962, Sandy Hook 

 Bay). The seasonal shift from Acartia clausii to Acartia tonsa in July 

 is identical to that described by R. J. Conover (1956) for the central 

 portion of the Sound. 



v^ The composition of the crustacean population in general shows 

 good qualitative agreement with studies by Deevey on central LIS (1956) 

 and BIS (1952), though relative abundances of some groups differed from 

 the present study. Deevey also found brachyuran zoea to be the 

 dominant larval crustacean form, with densities to 410/m . Megalopa, 

 however, were much less frequently encountered in her collections than 

 in ours. Pagurid zoea and glaucothoe were more numerous in our survey 

 than in Deevey' s, and amphipods less so. Abundance of cumaceans, 

 Neomysis americana and larval Crangon septemspinosus was similar in 

 all studies. Deevey did not report the occurrence of Palaemonetes sp, 

 zoea, which we found in small numbers. Hippolyte sp. and stomatopod 

 larvae present in her surveys were not encountered in ours. 



Our benthic infaunal samples show an unexplained disparity. 

 The April collections were almost devoid of life, while samples taken 

 from shallower waters in July had large numbers of species and 

 individuals. Sampling was not extensive enough to determine whether 

 this difference was correlated to depth, season or some other factor(s). 

 It appeared unlikely that the earlier population could have been limited 

 by ambient dissolved oxygen, temperature or salinity. Later collections 

 consisted mostly of young organisms; it may be that they had not yet been 

 produced or were unavailable to our gear during the first sampling period. 



17 



