318 MARINE BIOTIC COMMUNITIES 



comparisons with land communities. To this end, units have been 

 renamed according to the plan followed for the terrestrial and fresh- 

 water communities, and suitable technical names are carried in paren- 

 theses. 



Slenderfish-red prawn Community (Cyclothone-Acanthephyra Biome) 



(See Murray and Hjort, Bathypelagic Communities, also Plates I and 

 III, following page 664.) 



This lies south of the Wyville Thompson Ridge at a depth of 5,000 

 to 500 meters. It is characterized by slender dark-colored fishes of 

 which Cyclothone is predominant, deep-red prawns of which those 

 of the genus Acanthephyra are outstanding, and some species of 

 peteropods, squids, etc. This community appears to be divisible into 

 two lesser communities (associations), each characterized by a dif- 

 ferent species of Cyclothone and Acanthephyra. The young of vari- 

 ous of the fishes, especially Cyclothone, occur near the surface, forms 

 intermediate in size in the next community below, and the adults in 

 the deep water. Beebe (1929) and Beebe and Hollister (1930) noted 

 Cyclothone in great numbers off the Bermudas from the bathysphere 

 but mainly in the community above this one. They also record scar- 

 let crustaceans of the genera Notostorium and Gnathophansis, and an 

 eel of the genus Serrivomer (Beebe, 1932, a). 



Telescope-eyed Fish Community (Argyropelecus-Chauliodus Biome) 



(See Murray and Hjort, Fig. 454, page 603, and 458, page 604.) 



This community lies above the one containing the red prawns in 

 500-150 meters. The telescope-eyed fish (Argyropelecus) occurs in 

 large numbers, a fact recorded by both Murray and Hjort and by 

 Beebe (1929, 1932, a, b). According to the former (page 631), the 

 characteristics of the predominants are as follows: "The fishes are as 

 a rule laterally compressed, with a mirror-like silvery skin; when 

 colored, the back is generally blackish brown, and the resplendent 

 mirror-like sides of the body are blue or violet. The eyes are very 

 large, very often telescopic, and the body is usually provided with a 

 number of light organs varying in size. . . . All the silvery fishes of 

 the region between 150 and 500 meters are small, and the same remark 

 applies to the other organisms of the community. These consist al- 

 most exclusively of small crustaceans (coi)epods, ostracods, amphi- 

 pods), sagittids, pteropods, and small medusae. Besides these, we 

 commence to find larvae of squids and fishes, which, however, become 



