154 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
In 1899 a single specimen was taken on August 7. None were observed in 1922. 
Figure 54 shows that the normal season is in August. Edwards's earliest record 
was in 1895, when several specimens were taken in August. His largest captures 
were made in 1905, when many appeared on October 21 and 22. Heretofore 
adults of Chloridella have been comparatively plentiful, but during the past few 
years they have gradually disappeared imtil they are now very rarely found. This 
explains the absence of larvae in surface collections of recent years. 
The Erich thus larvje of Lysiosquilla armata 
Smith are among the most common on the south- 
em coast of New England. They are usually 
foimd farther from the coast than Chloridella, 
probably because the adults are found in moder- 
ately deep water. Chloridella empusa is found on 
the muddy bottoms of bays and rivers. Vinal 
Edwards took 12 specimens of Lysiosquilla larvae 
off Gay Head on September 12, 1902. Two speci- 
mens were taken in the same locality on August 
15 and one on August 25, 1923, in Muskeget 
Channel. 
Erichthus larvae of two species of the genus 
Odontodactylus are recorded by R. P. Bigelow 
from this region. One was taken off Nantucket 
October 3, 1883, and the other at Woods Hole 
August 22, 1876. One of these appears to be the 
same as that incorrectly identified by S. I. Smith 
(1874) as the larva of Chloridella empusa. His 
specimens were taken in Vineyard Sound on 
August 11. In 1923 two specimens of Smith's 
species appeared in sm^ace collections from Great 
Harbor on August 21 and three on August 22. 
Bigelow considers these larvae to be West 
Indian forms carried north in the Gulf Stream. 
Considering conditions existing dxiring the past 
summer, this appears to be questionable. In 1922, 
when tropical plankton was abundant in local 
waters, none were found. In 1923 no Gulf Stream 
plankton or fish were taken, either in Vineyard 
Sound or Katama Bay. If these stomatopod larvae 
are from the south, they are apparently the only 
tropical forms that found their way into shallow 
water this year. This seems hardly possible. 
On July 17, 1908, Edwards found over 2,000 Erichthus larvas in the stomach 
of a small mackerel taken at Woods Hole. Upon examination the author foimd 
them to be the young of the species of Odontodactylus figured by Smith. The 
specimens were for the most part entire and were probably found not far from 
Great Harbor. As one fish was able to capture more than 2,000, they must have 
Jul, 
60 
Sep, 
Cot, 
> 
1894 
-y 
1895 
1896 
1 
1897 
1898 
i. 
1899 
1900 
1901 
1. 
1902 
1 
1903 
1904 
J 
■ 
1905 
1906 
m 
1907 
Fig. 54. — Occurrence of larval forms of Chlori- 
della empusa in surface collections of successive 
years from 1893 to 1907 
