PLANKTON OF THE GULF OF MAINE 147 



and in the Eastern Channel (station 10227) in July, 1914. As has been noted above 

 (p. 134), it occurred in abundance over the continental slope southeast of Cape Sable 

 (station 10233) a few days later. We also found it at this general locality on June 

 24, 1915, which, with one record at the same relative position off Marthas Vineyard 

 on August 26, 1914 (station 10261), completes the list for the Gulf of Maine cruises. 

 All the records given by Hansen (1915) are from well outside the continental 

 edge, though he lists so many captures of E. Jcrohnii that the species is evidently 

 one of the commonest of euphausiids off the slope abreast of Cape Cod and at least 

 as far east as off La Have Bank, and perhaps still farther. Thus, on the basis of 

 actual record, Euphausia is hardly to be expected inside the outer rim of the Gulf of 

 Maine except as a straggler from the warmer Atlantic. 



Meganyctiphanes norvegica (M. Sars) 79 



While this brilliantly phosphorescent shrimp, the largest and most familiar of all 

 euphausiids in the Gulf of Maine, has not appeared as regularly in our tow nets in most 

 parts of the Gulf as has Thysanoessa inermis, it occurs locally in such abundance 

 that it is far more important economically than the latter. The locality records 

 for Meganyctiphanes are distributed generally enough to show that it may be ex- 

 pected anywhere within the gulf north of the Cape Cod-Cape Sable line during 

 the summer and early autumn, both in the deep basin and along shore. Nor does 

 the chart (fig. 53) show any apparent concentration in distribution in one or the 

 other side of the gulf at that season, if the considerable number of stations which 

 the Grampus has occupied in the Massachusetts Bay region be allowed for. 



I have just mentioned (p. 135) the swarms of Meganyctiphanes that regularly 

 appear during the warm months about St. Andrews and in Eastport Harbor, where 

 numbers of these shrimps can usually be seen darting to and fro at the surface on 

 almost any calm day in August. It seems that this region of violent tidal currents 

 is the only part of the Gulf of Maine where Meganyctiphanes regularly enters the 

 estuaries, but it appeared in the shallows at the head of Frenchmans Bay for a brief 

 period in June, 1923, when a number were collected by Dr. Ulric Dahlgren. Me- 

 ganyctiphanes appeared there again in abundance in the summer of 1924 (Dahlgren, 

 1925, has already reported these incursions). 



We have never taken it in our tow nettings inside the off-lying islands west or 

 south of this at any season, and although neither comparatively shoal water, per se, 

 nor the general neighborhood of the coast is any bar to its presence — witness its 

 occurrence in Massachusetts Bay and in the Eastport-St. Andrews region — most of 

 the Grampus, Albatross, and Halcyon records for it have been from the basin of the 

 gulf outside the 100-meter contour. We have found it only once on German Bank 

 (August 14, 1912, station 10029), once on Browns Bank (July 24, 1914, station 10228) 

 and twice on Georges Bank (station 10223, July 23, 1914, and station 20124, May, 

 17, 1920), although it has been taken in the Woods Hole region and in shoal water 

 south of Long Island (Hansen, 1915). 



'• For station records for this species from 1912 to 1916, see Bigelow, 1914, p. 118; 1914a, p. 411; 1915, p. 273; 1917, p. 282; and 1922, 

 p. 133. During the spring of 1920 it was taken at stations 20049, 20052, 20053, 20054, 20055, 20050, 20057, 20076, 20079, 20081, 20087, 

 20088, 20093, 20097, 20098, 20100, 20102, 20113, 20114, 20115, 20122, 20126, and 20127. In December-March, 1920-1921, it was taken 

 at Stations 10490, 10491, 10494, 10497, 10499, 10500, 10502, 10507. 10509, and 10510. 



