PARAPHOXUS EPISTOMUS 



^*=^' l'' 



Figure 24.— Geographic distribution of species from the family Phoxocephalidae in the Middle Atlantic Bight. 



Table 47.— Sediment associations of Paraphoxus epi- 

 Btomua in samples from Middle Atlantic Bight. 



Phoxocephaltu holbolli (Kr^yer) 1842 



Geographic Distribution. This species is widely dis- 

 tibuted in the arctic-boreal regions of the North Atlantic 

 (Barnard 1960). Along the eastern coast of North 

 America, it has previously been recorded as far south as 

 Long Island (Bousfield 1973). We collected P. holbolli in 

 108 samples from 90 stations between Cap)e Cod and the 

 mouth of the Chesapeake (Fig. 24). Our 53 records south 

 of Lyong Island constitute a southern range extension for 

 this sjiecies. The density of this relatively common 

 8i>ecies was low, ranging between 2/m^ and 220/m^ with 

 a mean of 30/m^. The mean density of this cold-water 

 species decreases from north to south going from 50/m^ 

 in southern New England to 9/m2 in the New York and 

 Chesapeake Bights. 



Bathymetric Distribution. According to Bousfield 

 (1973), P. holbolli may be found from the low intertidal 

 to 400 m. It occurred between 13 tmd 180 m in our sam- 

 ples, but 80% of the occurrences were between 30 and 69 

 m (Table 48) . This species was found in deeper water in 

 the southern part of our study area. 



Tabic I.S.Biith> metric distribution of Phoxocepha- 

 lus holboHi in samples from .Middle .\tlantic Bight. 



Sediment Relationship. This species has previously 

 been recorded on sediments ranging from fine sand to 

 sandy silt (Bousfield 1973). We found P. holbolli moat 

 commonly on sand bottoms (86/108), but it also oc- 

 curred on gravelly sand, shelly sand, shell, shelly silt, 

 and sandy silt (Table 49). 



42 



