548 Dit. G. fi. FOWLER our THE [June 21, 



and if it occurs between Newfoundland (mean annual isotherm 

 35 F.) and Muscat (mean annual isotherm 80 F.), it is remarkably 

 eurytherrnal for an epiplanktonic animal. 



As Mr. Thompgon has mentioned, the occurrence of Euchaeta 

 marina so far north is remarkable. It has been recorded hitherto, 

 according to Griesbrecht and Brady, in both Atlantic and Pacific 

 Oceans, northwards from 47 S. (?) across the tropics, but with a 

 northern limit in the Mediterranean. In Giesbrecht's list of meso- 

 planktonic species, it figures as from 4000 m. = 2200 fms. to the 

 surface. According to Brady \ "it would seem to be the most 

 abundant and most widely distributed of all the pelagic Copepoda," 

 a description which it deserves more than ever, now that its range 

 has been extended to the Faeroe Channel. In Prof. Herdman's 

 traverse it was " found in the majority of the collections taken 

 between mid-ocean and Quebec," i. e. across the mean annual iso- 

 therms of 35 to 50 F. Its extension northward in our longitudes 

 is therefore by no means surprising. 



The occurrence of Euchaeta barbata and Euchaeta gigas in the 

 Faeroe Channel is most extraordinary. Both species have hitherto 

 been taken only once, and then only together, viz. off Buenos Ayres 

 (Challenger Sta. 325, 36 44' S., 46' 16' "W., down to 2650 fathoms). 

 Their reappearance, still together, in northern latitudes makes it 

 fairly safe to prophesy that the use of deep-water tow-nets in inter- 

 mediate latitudes will prove them to be mesoplanktonic species of 

 wide distribution. 



Euchaeta hessei (Q-. S. Brady), which, as Griesbrecht suggests, 

 is perhaps identical with Euchirella rostrata (Glaus), is known 

 sparingly from both Atlantic and Pacific Oceans ; its distribution 

 is considerably extended by its occurrence in the ' Research ' 

 collections. 



Euchirella pulchra has been recorded, according to Griesbrecht, 

 only from the Gulf of Guinea, N.W. Africa, and South America. 

 Phaenna spinifera, Leuckartia flavicornis, and Heterochaeta spini- 

 frons, according to the same authority, are known only from the 

 Mediterranean (including the Canaries) and from the tropical 

 Pacific ; only the last of these occurs among the species taken in 

 Prof. Herdman's traverse of the Atlantic ; their range is now 

 extended northwards to the Faeroe Channel. They illustrate well 

 how impossible it is at present to draw distributional areae for most 

 Copepoda; this group of Crustacea will probably rival the Eadiolaria 

 in the width of its distributional areae, owing to the hardiness and 

 tenacity of life 'of many of its members. But if we bear in mind 

 that this is a Frontier district, i. e. one where a heavy slaughter of 

 the Plankton occurs at the meeting of warm and cold currents, as 

 is evinced by the abundant formation of glauconite and phosphatic 

 nodules in the bottom deposits 2 , and by the wealth of the benthos, 



1 G. S. Brady, Chall. Eep. Zool. viii. Copepoda, p. 62 (Euchata prestandrea). 



2 For the glauconite, see Tizard and Murray, Proc. Hoy. Soc. Edinburgh, 

 i, pp. 671 et seqq. "There were no very large phosphate nodules, but numerous 



small ones, with phosphates in varying quantities," in a letter from Sir John 

 Murray. 



