between 15 and 1,515 m. The density of this eurybathic 

 species showed no strong pattern of change with depth, 

 but it did become scarce (0-4/m^) at depths <30 m and 

 >500 m (Table 44). This species showed a clear pattern 

 of southern submergence since all the records south of 

 New Jersey occurred at depths >80 m (Fig. 23). 



Harpinia sp. A 



An undescribed species of Harpinia occurred at two 

 deepwater stations off the coast of New Jersey (2,495 

 m— silt) and Maryland (1,955 m— silt) (Fig. 23). 



Table 44.— Bath>'metric distribution of Harpinia pro- 

 pinqua in samples from Middle Atlantic Bight. 



Sediment Relationship. Bousfield (1973) found this 

 species on sand and silty sand sediments. We collected 

 H. propinqua on bottoms ranging from shell to silt-clay 

 (Table 45). Although the highest mean density (40/m2) 

 of H. propinqua was recorded from sand bottoms, it 

 should be pointed out that more than half of the samples 

 (63/121) were collected from sand-silt and silt-clay bot- 

 toms. 



Table 45. — Sediment associations of Harpinia propin- 

 qua in samples from Middle Atlantic Bight. 



Harpinia truncata G. O. Sara 1896 



This species is known from Iceland, Norway, and the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence (Barnard 1960; Bousfield 1973). 

 We collected H. truncata at seven stations on the con- 

 tinental shelf between Long Island and Cape May (Fig. 

 23). Its density was low at all stations, ranging between 

 3/m2 and 90/m^ The seven stations ranged between 34 

 and 124 m on sand (5/7), sand-silt (1/7), and silty clay 

 (1/7) sediments. These records constitute a southern 

 range extension for this species along the North 

 American Atlantic coast. 



Harpiniopsia sp. A 



A single male specimen of this unidentified species oc- 

 curred east of Norfolk, Va., at 960 m depth on a silt bot- 

 tom. (Fig. 23). 



Paraphoxua epistomus (Shoemaker) 1938 



Geographic Distribution. This species has been 

 reported from both coasts of North America (Btimard 

 1960). Along the American Atlantic coast, it has been 

 recorded from southern Maine to North Carolina 

 (Bousfield 1973). We collected P. epistomus in 191 sam- 

 ples from 181 stations between Cape Cod and Cape Hat- 

 teras (Fig. 24). Although this species occurred through- 

 out our study area, it was only moderately abundant 

 with a mean density of 60/m^ ranging between 2/m2 and 

 500/m2. The mean density of this species was highest in 

 southern New England (94/m2), decreasing in the New 

 York Bight (38/m2) and Chesapeake Bight (53/m2). 



Bathymetric Distribution. According to Bousfield 

 (1973), P. epistomus has been collected to >50 m. In our 

 samples, it occurred between 7 and 180 m. The density 

 of this species varied little with depth (Table 46), but 

 the majority of the collections (177/191) occurred 

 between 10 and 79 m. The depth distribution of this 

 open shelf species showed no evidence of change with 

 latitude. 



Table 46.— Bathymetric distribution of Paraphoxua 

 epistomus in samples from Middle Atlantic Bight. 



Sediment Relationship. This species usually occurs on 

 sandy sediments (Bousfield 1973). We found it on sedi- 

 ments ranging from gravelly sand to sand, but over 

 80% of the samples occurred on sand bottoms (Table 

 47). 



41 



