TKANSACTIONS. 



I. — The Pycnogonida dredged in the Faroe Channel during the Cruise of H. M.S. 

 " Triton " (in August 1 882). By Dr P. P. C. Hoek, Member of the Boyal 

 Academy of Science of the Netherlands. (Plate I.) 



(Communicated by Mr John Murray. ) 



During the cruise of H.M.S. " Triton" a small but very interesting collec- 

 tion of Pycnogonids was made. Mr John Murray sent it over to me, and 

 asked me to prepare a report on it, which I gladly undertook to do. 



The thirteen stations of the "Triton" cruise are situated about 60° lat. 

 north, and between 6° and 9° 6' long, west of Greenwich. At six of these 

 stations Pycnogonids were obtained. The depth of the sea at these stations 

 varies from 433 to 640 fathoms; at two of them the bottom was hard 

 ground or stones, at three the bottom was mud, at one ooze. At three of the 

 stations the bottom temperature was about 45°, at the three others about 30°. 

 The first three being in the so-called warm area, the latter in the cold area. 



The number of species collected amounts to eleven. Three of them inhabit 

 the cold area, and were not found in the warm area [Nymplion Strbmii, Kroyer; 

 Colossendeis proboscidea, Sab. spec. ; and C. angusta, G. O. Sars) ; five species 

 were observed only in the warm area {Nymplion hirtipes, Bell ; N. macrum, 

 Wilson ; N. longitarse, Kroyer ; Pallene malleolata, G. O. Sars ; Pallenopsis 

 tritonis, n. sp.) . The remaining three seem to inhabit the cold as well as the 

 warm area. Nymplion macronyx, G. O. Sars, however, is represented by several 

 hundred specimens from the cold area, and by one specimen only from the 

 warm area ; and this is also the case with Nymplion robustum, Bell. Of both 

 species the number of specimens collected at stations in the cold area was so 

 large, that the occurrence of one specimen at a station in the warm area 

 seems rather unimportant — it must be considered as a specimen which has got 

 astray ; but whether this happened before or after its being dredged, I cannot 

 say with certainty. As in both instances the station in the warm area 

 from which the single specimen was obtained follows one in the cold area, 



VOL. XXXII. PART I. A 



