548 DE. G. H. FOWLEE ON THE [June 21, 



and ir it occurs between Newfoundland (mean annual isotberm 

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

 eur3'thermal for an epiplauktonic animal. 



As Mr. Q^'liompson has mentioned, the occurrence of Euchaeta 

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

 according to Giesbrecht and Brady, in both Atlantic and Pacific 

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

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

 planktouic 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 beeji 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," -*. e. across the mean annual iso- 

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

 is therefore by no means surprising. 



The occurrence of Euchaeta barbata and Euchasta 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 propliesy that the use of deep-water tow -nets in inter- 

 mediate latitudes will prove them to be mesoplauktonic species of 

 wide distribution. 



Euchaeta hessei (G. S. Brady), which, as Giesbrecht suggests, 

 is perhaps identical with EucIiireUa rosfrata (Glaus), is known 

 sparingly from both Atlantic and Pacihc Oceans ; its distribution 

 is considerably extended by its occurrence in the ' Research ' 

 collections. 



Euchirella pulchra has been recorded, accoi-diog to Giesbrecht, 

 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 are^ for most 

 Copepoda; this group of Crustacea will probably rival the Eadiolaria 

 in the width of its distributional areee, ownig 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 -, and by the wealth of the benthos, — 



' G. S. Brady, Oball. Rep. Zool. viii. Copepoda, p. 62 (Eiwhcefa preMandrea). 



^ For the glauconite, see Tizard and Murray, Proc. Eoy. Soc. Edinburgh, 



1. pp. 671 e( seqq. — "There were no very large phosphate nodules, but numerous 



small ones, with phosphates in varying quantities," in a letter fi-om Sir John 



Murray. 



