Proceedings of 

 the United States 

 National Museum 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION • WASHINGTON, D.C. 



Volume 122 1967 Number 3594 



A STUDY OF THREE SPECIES OF SARSIELLA 

 (OSTRACODA: MYODOCOPA) 



By Louis S. Kornicker 



Associate Curator, Division of Crustacea 



The family Sarsiellidae is represented in the world's oceans between 

 latitudes of 53°N to 47°S (Poiilsen, 19G5, p. 468). Specimens have 

 been obtained from depths of 2333 m but are more numerous in shal- 

 lower coastal waters. Members of the family seem better adapted to 

 the shallow inshore envu'onment than other Myodocopa; e.g., sarsiel- 

 lids were the only myodocopids found in Texas bays and lagoons by 

 Kornicker and Wise (1962) and in San Francisco Bay by Jones (1958a) , 

 and only sarsiellids and one other group of myodocopids were reported 

 in the Woods Hole area, Mass., by Cushman (1906). Sarsiellids are 

 benthonic; they s\vim near the bottom and bmTow in sediment. 

 Present evidence indicates that they are carnivores, feeding upon small 

 crustaceans and worms. 



The present study has three objectives: (1) to establish more 

 firmly the relationship between Sarsiella zostericola Cushman, 1906, 

 Sarsiella americana Cushman, 1906, and Sarsiella tricostata Jones, 

 1958; (2) to redescribe Sarsiella capsula, the type-species of the genus, 

 which is the type-genus of the family; (3) to determine whether 

 parasitism is the cause of the unusual asymmetry of valves of Sarsi- 

 ella disparalis Darby, 1965, and to ascertain if asymmetry of valves 

 is reflected in appendages. 



1 



