BATITi'PELAGIC SQUID BATHYTEUTHIS 3 



where it was captured over a great range of depths ; often it was taken 

 in what is considered great abundance for a deep-sea squid, with as 

 many as two-dozen specimens in a single midwater tow. Although B. 

 abyssicoki has been recorded in the literature from several different 

 localities in the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Antarctic Oceans, it has 

 been regarded as a rather rare bathypelagic squid that exhibits a world- 

 wide distribution. 



The overall objectives of the Antarctic Celphalopod Project are to 

 delineate the Antarctic cephalopod fauna, to define the horizontal and 

 vertical distributions of its components, and to determine its zoogeo- 

 graphic relationships with the faunas of adjoining regions. The sys- 

 tematics of the fauna is currently being worked out group by group, 

 but it seemed that the ultimate objectives of the program could be 

 achieved by first working out the distribution and zoogeographic rela- 

 tionships of a single species as a model for comparison in future 

 studies on other species. Bathyteuthis ahyssicola was the obvious choice 

 for the initial study because of its numbers and because it occurs 

 throughout the area of operations of the Eltanin. 



In addition to the material from the Antarctic, a number of speci- 

 mens of Bathyteuthis from the Atlantic, East Pacific, and Indian 

 Oceans were available from the collections of the Dana, PiUsbury^ 

 Velero, Anton Bruun, Chain, and Bureau of Commercial Fisheries 

 vessels. 



The work that is presented here is divided into two major parts. The 

 part on systematics presents a review of literature on Bathyteuthis, 

 detailed descriptions of B. ahyssicola and of two newly named species 

 of Bathyteuthis. hacidifera and herryi (Roper, 1968), a comparison 

 of the species, a determination of the familial relationships of the 

 Bathyteuthidae, an analysis of Ctenopteryx, and a comparison of 

 Ctenopteryx with Bathyteuthis to determine the validity of their in- 

 clusion in the same family. The final part, of the sections on systematics 

 comprises an examination of the geographical variation in Atlantic, 

 East Pacific, and Antarctic populations of B. ahyssicola. 



The second part is a study of the distribution of Bathyteuthis. The 

 bathymetric and geographic ranges of the species are established, and 

 the physicochemical and biological factors that govern these distribu- 

 tions are analyzed. The occurrence and abundance of the Antarctic 

 population are examined in relation to area, environmental conditions, 

 season, and other species of pelagic squid. The size-group composition 

 of the population and the distribution of growth stages are presented. 



A detailed characterization of the Antarctic oceanic environment 

 was a necessary prelude to the study of the distribution of B. ahyssicola 

 and of all other Southern Ocean species of cephalopods as well. Eltanin 



