Report on Pycnogonida Collected by the Canadian Arctic 

 Expedition, 1913-1918. 



By LEON J. COLE 



University of Wisconsin 



Arctic explorations extending back more than a century have resulted in 

 what may perhaps be considered a fairly complete knowledge of the pycnogonid 

 fauna in one half of the Arctic ocean, while that of the other half has remained 

 almost wholly unknown. Numerous collections have been reported on from the 

 Kara sea (limited by about the 70th meridian) on the east to Baffin bay and 

 Smith sound (to nearly 80 W. long.) on the west. These include collections 

 from the Kara sea, Barents sea, Franz Josef land, Spitzbergen, the north coast of 

 Norway and the Norwegian sea, the north Atlantic, the shores of Greenland, 

 Davis strait, Baffin bay and Smith sound. In contrast to this two or three 

 early records and the reporting of two species of Nymphon at point Barrow 

 (Murdoch, 1885) 1 apparently stood for many years as the only records for this 

 group on the arctic coasts of Canada (to the westward of Baffin bay), Alsaka 

 and Siberia. The Russian Polar Expedition, 1900-1903 (Schimkewitsch, 1907a), 

 added considerably to our knowledge of the Siberian pycnogonid fauna as far 

 east as the New Siberian islands (to longitude 150 E.). The collections of the 

 Canadian Arctic Expedition, while they contain only three species, help to fill in 

 another gap, as they come from Dolphin and Union strait, approximately mid- 

 way between Baffin bay and point Barrow. 



There were transmitted to me through the Smithsonian Institution of Wash- 

 ington, for purposes of identification, two lots of Pycnogonida collected by the 

 Canadian Arctic Expedition. These lots both came from the same station 

 (43a) and comprise five specimens belonging to three different species of the 

 Nymphonidae. The labels give the following data for this station: 



"Off Cockburn Point, Dolphin and Union Str., Arctic Can. Sta. 430. Depth 

 about 100 meters, Gray mud with pebbles, 4 ft. beam-trawl, about 1 hour. 

 C.A.E. F. Johansen." ' 



Following are the species represented: 



1. Nymphon sluiteri Hoek. 



One specimen, adult. 



The shape of the eye-tubercle and the shape and relative proportions of the 

 terminal claw to the second tarsal joint are diagnostic. 



According to the tabular summary of the distribution of temperate and 

 arctic Pyconogonida given by Norman (1908) this species has previously been 

 reported from "the following regions: 



a. British area. 



b. East Arctic Siberia to East Finmark. 



c. High Arctic Spitzbergen, Franz Josef land, &c. 



d. West Arctic Jan Mayen, Iceland, east Greenland, 



It has also been reported from west Greenland (Coutts inlet, Rodger, 1893) 2 , 

 while the records of the Russian Polar Expedition from Kara sea, Taimur bay, 



through the kindness of Dr. Paul Bartsch, Curator of Marina Invertebrates in the U.S. National 

 Museum, I have recently had the privilege of examining the point Barrow specimens and have been able 

 to verify Murdoch's identification of them as Nymphon longitarse and Nymphon grossipes. 



2 Mr. Fritz Johansen has called my attention to the record of two pycnogonids reported in Suther- 

 land's (1852) "Journal of a Voyage in Baffin's Bay and Barrow Straits, in the years 1850-1851" (Vol. II, 

 Appendix, pages ccvii and ccviii), which appears to have been overlooked by the authors dealing with 

 this region. The descriptions, by Mr. Adam White, are very inadequate, and the illustrations are little 

 better for specific determination. As Mr. Johansen suggests, his Nymphon crassipes is probably a Chatony- 

 mphon (though the hairiness is not mentioned except on the palps, and is not represented in the figure), 

 and might perhaps be Chcetonymphon hirtipes. The other species, which he describes as a species of 

 Nymphon similar to the Pycnogonum grossipes of Otto Fabricius but smaller and "more slim" would 

 appear to be very close to Nymphon sluiteri or Nymphon longitarse, though the proportionate lengths of the 

 joints of the legs as represented do not agree with the latter species. It would, however, be worse than 

 useless to attempt to assign these forms definitely to known species on the basis of the descriptions fur- 

 nished. The specimens came from Union bay (about75N., 92W.) At our suggestion, IDr. W. T. Caiman 

 has kindly made search for these specimens in the collections of the British Museum, but has been unable 

 to find them. 



