Orchomene minuta (Kr^yer) 1846 



Geographic Distribution. This species is widely dis- 

 tributed in the arctic boreal regions of the North Atlan- 

 tic, and it has been found between Baffin Island and 

 New Jersey off the east coast of North America 

 (Bousfield 1973). Orchomene minuta occurred at 33 sta- 

 tions between Cajae Cod and New Jersey in our Middle 

 Alantic Bight collections (Fig. 21). Ita mean density was 

 40/m^ ranging between 2/m^ and 300/m^. 



Bathymetric Distribution. This species has been 

 recorded from intertidal depths down to 100 m 

 (Bousfield 1973). We collected 0. minuta between 23 

 and 85 m with the highest densities (80-90/m^), occur- 

 ring between 30 and 49 m (Table 41). Orchomene 

 minuta showed no evidence of changing its bathymetric 

 distribution with latitude. 



Table 41.— Bathymetric diatribution of Orchomene 

 minuta in aamples from Middle Atlantic Bight. 



Sediment Relationship. Orchomene minuta is usually 

 found on fine sand or silty sand (Bousfield 1973). In our 

 collections, 0. minuta was found most commonly on 

 sand (46/50), but also occurred on gravelly sand (2/50) 

 and silty sand (2/50). 



Orchomene pectinata G. O. Sara 1895 



This species has previously been recorded from the 

 Norwegian coast and the Arctic Basin between 200 and 

 1,200 m (Stephensen 1935). We collected single speci- 

 mens of this bathyal sjjecies at two stations along the 

 continental slope (Fig. 21). The station south of Cape 

 Cod was located in 440 m on sand, and the station east 

 of Chesapeake Bay was located in 900 m on silty sand. 



Paammonyx nobilis (Stimpson) 1853 



According to Scott and Croker (1976), this sand bur- 

 rowing amphipod has been recorded from western New- 

 foundland to New Jersey. They found this species to be 

 most abundant on protected intertidal sand fiats in 

 northern New England. Our collections from six stations 

 between Cape Cod and New Jersey (Fig. 21) occurred 

 between 7 and 60 m on sand (4/6) and shelly sand (2/6) 

 bottoms at low densities (2-20/m''). 



Tmetonyx cicada (O. Fabricius) 1780 



This epibenthic scavenger is widely distributed in arc- 



tic boreal regions and has been collected from intertidal 

 to abyssal depths (Sars 1895; Stephensen 1935; Barnard 

 1969). Shoemaker (1930a) reported this species off Nova 

 Scotia in 100-4(X) m. Our collections of T. cicada from 

 three stations on the continental slope (440-550 m) 

 south of Cape Cod constitute a southern range exten- 

 sion for this species off eastern North America (Fig. 21). 

 The density of this species was low (2-4/m') at the three 

 stations. Two of the stations were on a sand bottom, and 

 the other was on a silty sand bottom. 



Family OEDICEROTIDAE 



Monoculodea edwardai Holmes 1905 



Geographic Distribution. This species is found from 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico 

 (Bousfield 1973). We collected M. edwardsi in 29 sam- 

 ples from 23 stations located between Cap>e Cod and 

 Virginia (Fig. 22). The mean density of this species was 

 low (9/m^), ranging between 2/m^ and 30/m2. There was 

 no latitudinal trend in the density of this species. 



Bathymetric Distribution. According to Bousfield 

 (1973), M. edwardsi is found from low intertidal depths 

 to 75 m. We collected this species between 9 and 73 m, 

 but 80% of the samples occurred between 30 and 59 m 

 (Table 42). Monoculodes edwardsi showed no change in 

 its bathymetric distribution with latitude. 



Table 42.— Bath.Mnetric distribution of Monoeulodei 

 edwardsi in samples from Middle Atlantic Bicht. 



Sediment Relationship. Bousfield (1973) found M. 

 edwardsi on fine sand and silty sand sediments. In our 

 collections, it occurred on sediments ranging from sandy 

 gravel to silt clay, but 80% of the collections came from 

 sand bottoms (Table 43). 



Table 4.1. — Sediment associations of Monoculodes ed- 

 wardii in samples from .Middle Atlantic Bight. 



38 



