mercially important species they caught Calli- 

 nectes sapidus and Menippe mercenana. 



LESS ABUNDANT BUT WIDELY DISTRIBUTED 

 AND FREQUENTLY OCCURRING ORGANISMS 



This group of organisms consisted of taxa 

 that occurred in 10 percent or more of the 

 samples (table 6). Collectively they accounted 

 for 14 percent of the total number of zooplank- 

 ters. Most taxa in this category appeared dur- 

 ing every season. 



Copepods were the fourth-most-numerous 

 group collected. They occurred in highest num- 

 bers in the spring, and were the third-most- 

 abundant taxon in the winter (fig. 4). Because 

 of the coarse mesh of the plankton net, only 

 larger specimens were retained consistently. 

 Some of the nauplius and copepodite stages 

 and smaller adults were held in the net only 

 when trapped among larger plankton and 

 detritus. Labidocera aestiva appeared to be the 

 dominant form. The caligoids formed only a 

 small part (1.8 percent) of this group. 



Caridean shrimp constituted 2.4 percent of 

 the zooplankters. Most of the specimens were 

 advanced postlarvae and were classified only to 

 family. Identified palaemonids were represent- 



ed by the subfamilies Palaemoninae and Pon- 

 tiniinae and the genera Palaemonetes and Peri- 

 climines; alpheids were represented by Alpheus 

 and Synalpheus and hippolytides by Tozeuma, 

 Hippohjsmata, and Latreutes fucorum. Toze- 

 uma ssp., found in stages from mysis to adult, 

 accounted for 64 percent of the hippolytides. 

 Hippohjsmata sp. appeared only as advanced 

 postlarvae and Latreutes fucorum only as 

 adults. 



Thalassinids were mostly advanced post- 

 larval stages. Larvae of Upogebia sp. and 

 Callianassa sp. also appeared in the samples. 

 Some of these larvae possibly were Upogebia 

 affinis and Callianassa atlantica, for both spe- 

 cies are found in Tampa Bay. 



Larval stomatopods were collected at every 

 station during the summer. Antizoea, pseu- 

 dozoea, erichtus, and alima types were in most 

 of the samples. Possibly many of the larvae 

 were Squilla empusa, a prominent organism in 

 Tampa Bay (Dragovich and Kelly, 1964). 



Twelve percent of the amphipods belonged to 

 the suborder Caprellidea; the remainder be- 

 longed to one of the suborders, Gammaridea or 

 Hyperiidea. 



Table ^.—Frequency of occurrence oj zooplankters found in 10 percent or more of the samples from Tampa Bay and the adjacent 

 Uulf of Mexico (excluding the three most abundant forms shown in Table 5), September 1961 through August 1962 



Taion 



(Number of tows shown in parentheses] ■ 



Frequency of occurrence ' 



During 

 12 



months 



(267) 



F 

 (59) 



No. 



24 

 19 



Season » 



W 



(65) 



JVo. 

 4 

 11 



42 

 30 

 13 



9 

 10 

 12 

 17 

 13 



1 



31 

 11 



21 

 13 

 2 



7 

 15 

 4 



' Fall, winter, spring, and summer. 



' Immature Sagitta less than 5 mm long. 



(67) 



JVo. 

 12 



8 



45 

 52 

 36 

 36 



25 

 24 

 15 



7 

 I 



S 

 (76) 



JVo. 

 25 

 14 



52 

 41 

 36 

 32 

 29 

 24 

 9 

 8 

 20 



40 

 43 



2S 

 25 

 28 

 12 

 2 

 10 



Stations 



1 



(18) 



JVo. 

 

 1 



2 

 13 

 16 



6 

 2 



2 

 (18) 



3 



(18) 



JVo. JVo. 

 3 

 3 4 



4 



(17) 



JVo. 



5 

 (23) 



JVo. 

 9 

 3 



16 



20 

 6 

 4 



14 

 9 



12 

 2 

 2 



10 

 II 



6 



(22) 



7 

 (23) 



JVo. 

 4 

 2 



12 

 13 

 5 

 2 

 6 

 5 

 6 

 2 

 6 



8 



7 



6 

 4 

 5 

 4 



JVo. 

 

 



9 

 13 

 11 

 5 

 8 

 2 

 1 

 2 

 1 



8 

 (17) 



JVo. 



1 



11 



15 

 17 

 13 

 6 

 11 

 14 

 6 

 6 

 1 



13 



9 



7 

 14 

 4 

 5 

 2 

 2 



(17) 



JVo. 

 

 



10 

 (20) 



JVo. 

 4 

 4 



19 

 11 

 11 

 13 



9 

 7 

 5 

 1 

 2 



11 

 10 



10 

 4 

 7 

 4 

 2 

 6 



11 



(20) 



JVo. 

 6 



7 



16 

 14 

 8 

 7 

 7 

 13 

 4 



12 



(20) 



JVo. 

 



13 



(17) 



JVo. 

 4 

 4 



14 

 11 

 5 

 2 

 3 

 5 

 1 

 2 

 1 



3 



5 





 7 

 6 

 1 



JVo. 

 

 



10 

 3 

 3 



2 

 I 

 

 4 

 



4 

 2 





 

 5 

 

 

 1 



Percent- 

 age of 

 total 



number 

 of or 



ganisms 



collected 



% 

 1.8 

 0.4 



2.7 

 1.3 

 0.6 

 0.4 

 0.5 

 0.8 

 0.1 

 <0.1 

 0.2 



1.2 

 1.2 



1.0 

 1.3 

 0.4 

 0.1 

 0.1 

 <0.1 



Maxi- 

 mum 

 abun- 

 dance 



JVo./m." 

 128.0 

 46.0 



188.0 

 37.0 

 II. 

 37.0 

 23.0 

 28.0 

 3.0 

 I.O 

 34.0 



34.0 

 97.0 



177.0 

 37.0 

 23.0 

 1.0 

 3.0 

 0.5 



MACRO-ZOOPLANKTON IN TAMPA BAY AND ADJACENT GULF 



217 



