PLANKTON OF THE GULF OF MAINE 243 



coast of Canada (Willey, 1920), and from north European coasts generally inward 

 to the mouth of the Baltic. Brady (1878-1880) calls it ubiquitous around Gnat 

 Britain, and Sars (1903-191 1) names it the commonest of Norwegian harpactoids. It 

 occurs in the Mediterranean and Red Seas and about New Zealand and the Chatham 

 Islands in the Pacific. 36 Like most of its group it chiefly inhabits the littoral zone, 

 among seaweed, often in tide pools, and only occasionally, perhaps accidentally, it 

 becomes pelagic out at sea. 



In northeastern American waters it has previously been reported from Narra- 

 gansett Bay, Rhode Island (Williams, 1907), and from Woods Hole, where Sharpe 

 (1911) collected it in summer, both among floating algae and eel grass (Zostera) in 

 water about 10 fathoms deep and in the so-called "eel pond," an inclosed tidal pool. 



At St. Andrews, Idya, like other Harpactoida, is perhaps swept up into the upper 

 waters by the violent tides. Doctor McMurrich lists it three times between January 

 26 and March 28: in nearly 50 per cent of the hauls from March 28 to May 19; and 

 in 25 per cent of the hauls from May 20 to July 6; but not at all during the later 

 summer, autumn, or early winter. It has not been detected in the plankton of the 

 open gulf and is hardly to be expected there except perhaps as a stray from the 

 littoral zone with the masses of eel grass (Zostera) and rock weed (Fucus) so often 

 seen drifting on the surface. 



In estuarine situations, where this little copepod is plentiful, it may be an 

 important article of diet for fishes, Willey (1920, p. 35) having found it in abundance 

 in the stomach of the winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectes) at St. Andrews. 



Labidocera sestiva Wheeler 



This species was described by Wheeler (1901) from Woods Hole, where he found 

 it very common in the tow during June and September, and where Parker (1902, 

 p. 103) speaks of it as "one of the commonest species." Williams (1906 and 1907) 

 did not find it in Narragansett Bay nor Fowler (1912) off New Jersey, but Dr. C. B. 

 Wilson writes me that it is "in considerable numbers along the Atlantic coast south 

 of New England," and in August, 1916, it was taken at three stations off the mouth 

 of Chesapeake Bay (Bigelow, 1922, p. 146). Fish (1925) had it at Woods Hole 

 from June through November. Up to the present time it is known only from the 

 American side of the North Atlantic. 



The only previous records of it from east or north of Cape Cod are T. Scott's 

 (1905) mention of it in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Willey's (1919) two citations of 

 it in Northumberland Strait and between Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton 

 Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but the towings of 1920 and 1921 extend its range 

 into the Gulf of Maine. 



There are only three records for it in the Gulf of Maine — that is, western 

 basin, March 24, 1920 (station 20087); off Penobscot Bay, April 10, 1920 (station 

 20097); and again on January 1, 1921 (station 10496) — always in minimal amounts. 

 Thus it is evidently very rare in the gulf, and probably only a straggler there from 

 its center of abundance in the Woods Hole region. This species, having no constant 

 place in the local plankton, is chiefly interesting here as the subject of Parker's (1902) 



>• Sars (1903-1911) and Sharpe (1911) summarize its distribution as known. 



