[From the American Journal op Science, Vol. XXVIII, July, 1884.]
Art.
IX.—
Crustacea of the Albatross Dredgings in1883;
by
Sidney
I. ^Smith.
Very
little has yetbeen
published in regard to the zoolog-ical resultsof thedeep
seaexplorations carriedon
during thesummer
of 1883,by
theUnited
States FishCommission,
although the dredgings
were
among
themost
important yetmade.
Some
of theremarkable
forms
of fishes discoveredhave
been describedby
Drs. Gilland
Ryder, but the writer's reporton
thedecapod
Crustacea (80 pages of text with 10 plates), recentlyputintype fortheFishCommission Report
for 1882, is the first detailed reporton
the zoological collectionmade by
the Albatross,and
affordsan opportunity fora brief review of the results of the study of the higher Crustacea,which
is here publishedby
permission of theCommissioner
of Fishand
Fisheries.The
dredgings of theAlbatrossextended
from
offCape
Hat-terastothe region of George'sBanks.
The number
of dredg-ing stationswas
116, ofwhich 30 were
in lessthan100
fathoms, 35between 100 and 500
fathoms, 19between 500
and 1000
fathoms,27 between 1000 and 2000
fathoms,and
5below 2000
fathoms.
The
whole
number
of species ofDecapoda
deter-mined
from
these stations is 72, but of these at least 15 are true shallow-water species.Of
theremaining
57
species,40
were
takenbelow
500
fathoms,29 below 1000
fathoms, 13below
2000
fathoms,and
6 at a single haul in2949
fathoms.Of
the 29 species takenbelow 1000
fathoms, 21 are Carideaor true shrimp,and
the 8higher species distributed as follows: 2Eryontidse, 3 Gralatheidse, 1 Paguroid, 1 Lithodes,
and
1Bra-chyuran
belonging to theDorippidse. It is interesting tocom-pare these resultswith the listsof thefaunaof the
North
Atlan-ticbelow 1000
fathoms, givenby
theRev.
Dr.Norman
in the presidential address to theTyneside
Naturalists' Field Club, published last year. In Dr.Norman's
lists only 12 species ofDecapoda
are recorded,none
ofthem
from
as great adepth
as2000
fathoms,and
of these 12 species, 7were
known
onlyfrom
theBlake
dredgings of 1880.The
followingaresome
of themore
interestingnew
forms: anew
genus
ofBrachyura
allied to Ethusa,1496
to-1735
fath-oms
; anAnomuran
belonging toA.Milne-Edwards'
new
genus
Galacantha,
1479
fathoms;two
speciesofPentacheles (agenus
ofEryontida? allied to Willemcesia),
between 843 and
1917
fath-oms;
a stoutPalasmonid
(Notostomus), six inches longand
intense
dark
crimson in color,1309
to1555
fathoms; a gigantic Pasipkae, eightand
one-half inches long,1342
54
S. I.Smith
—
('///'stiiciaof
the AlhatrossDredgings.
oms;
three species of aremarkable
new
genus
allied toPasiphae,
and
also toHymenodora
and
some
other generaof Palaemonidio,which shows
that Paspha'e is closely allied to the Palsemonidse ; a large Penseid, a foot in length, referred tothelittle
known
genus
Aristeus;and
a large Sergestes three inches in length.The
great size ofsome
of thesenew
species ofshrimp
isremarkable,
but
is farexceeded
by
two
of the previously describedcrabs.Oeryon
quinquedens, from 105 to588
fathoms, isone
of the largestBrachyurans known,
the carapax insome
specimens beingfive inches long
and
six broad, whileone
spe-cimen
of the great spiny Lithodes Agassiziimeasures
seven inches in lengthand
six in breadth of carapax,and
the out-stretched legsover three feet in extent.Among
theSchizopoda
there aretwo
largespecies ofQnath-ophausa,
one
over four inchesin length,and
a Lophogaster, allfrom below 2000
fathoms.One
of themost
interestingSchiz-opods
isa small Thysanoessa(agenus
of Euphausidae)from 398
to1067
fathoms, ofwhich one
femalewas found
carrying eggs.The
eggsare carried in an elongatedand
flattenedmass
beneath the cephalothorax, are apparently held togetherby some
glu-tinous secretion,and
are attached principally to the third pair of perseopods (antepenultimate cephalothoracic appendages).This
apparently confirms Bell's statement in regard to the egg-carrying ofThysanopoda
Couchii,which
is, as faras Iknow,
theonly published observation of egg-carrying inany
of the Euphausidae.The AmphipOda
from deep
water are comparativelyfew
innumber
and have
not yetbeen
carefullyexamined,
butamong
them
isone
specimen
of the gigantic Eurytlienes gryllusBoeck
(Lysianassa Magellanica Milne-Edwards),
probably
the largestof all
known
Amphipoda.
This specimen,which
is over fourand
a half inches long,and
very stout inproportion,was
taken in1917
fathoms,north lat. 37° 56' 20", west long. 70° 57' 30".The
few
previouslyknown
specimens
came
from
Cape Horn,
Greenland,
and Finmark, and have
apparently all been takenfrom
thestomachs
of fishes.This
speciesand
its occurrence in theextreme
arcticand
antarcticseas,hasbeen
much
discussedand
is the subject of a longmemoir
by
Lilljeborg, but the apparentlyanomalous
distribution is explainedby
its discov-ery indeep
wateroffour middle
Atlanticcoast.The
great differences in depththrough
which
some
of the species range isworthy
of notice, several species rangingmore
than
2000
fathoms, asshown
in the list, given further on, of species takenbelow 2000
fathoms. Ihave
not yetnoticed distinct varietal differencesdue
todepth
inany
species,though
there is often a verymarked
change
in the associating species.S. I.
Smith
—
Crustaceaof
the AlbatrossDredgings.
55
A
very
remarkable
case is that of Para.paguruspilosimanus,which was
taken at fifteen stationsand
in250
to640
fathomsby
the FishHawk
and
Blake
in 1880-81-82,
and
in greatabundance
atone
station, in319
fathoms,where
nearly fourhundred
large specimenswere
taken at once. Allthese earlier specimenswere
inhabiting carcincecia of Epizoanthus paguri-philus. In the dredgings lastsummer
theParapagurus was
taken at seven stations ranging in depth
from
1731 to2221
fathoms, but
none
of the specimenswere
associated with thesame
species of Epizoanthus,some
being in a very different species of Epizoanthus, others innaked
gastropod shells,and
still others inan
actinian polyp.A
striking characteristic of thedeep-sea Crustacea is theirred or reddish color.A
few
species are apparently nearlycolorless, but the great majority aresome
shade of red or orange,and
Ihave
seenno
evidence ofany
otherbrightcolor.A
fewspeciesfrom
between 100 and 300 fathoms
are conspicuouslymarked
with scarlet or vermilion, but
such
brightmarkings
were not noticed inany
speciesfrom
below
1000
fathoms.Below
this depth, orange red of varying intensity is apparently themost
common
color, although in several species, very notably in the Notostomus already referred to, the colorwas
an exceedingly intensedark
crimson.The
eyes of these abyssal species areeven
more
remarkable
than their colors, as the following list of the
Decapoda
and
largerSchizopoda
takenbelow 2000 fathoms
by
the Albatross, with the noteswhich
follow, willshow
:
1.
Parapagurus
pilosimanus 1*731 to 2221 fathoms.2. Pontophilusabyssi 1917 to 2221
3. Nematocarcinus ensiferus 588 to 2030
4.
Acanthephyra
Agassizii 105 to 29495. Acanthephyra, sp. .. 2929
6. Gen. allied to
Acanthephyra.
1395 to 29297.
Hymenodora
glacialis 888 to 2030 8. Parapasiphaesulcatifrons ... 516 to 2929 9. Parapasiphaecompta
2369 10.Amalopenaeus
elegans 640 to 2369 11. Aristeus? tridens 843 to 2221 12.Hepomadus
tener 2949 13. Sergestes mollis 373 to 2949 14. Gnathophausa, sp .. 858 to 2033 15. Gnathophausa, sp 959 to 2949 16. Lophogaster, sp. 1022 to 2949In every
one
of these sixteen species theeyes are present, in thenormal
position,and
distinctly faceted. In Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, 11and
12 the eyes are well developed, black,and
whilef.fi
&
I.Smith
—
Crustaceaof
theAlbatnm
Dredgings.
are not conspicuously smaller than inmany
allied shallow-water forms. In 1 the eyes are black but conspicuously smaller than in the allied shallow-water species. In 13 the eyes areblackand
ofmoderate
size. In 9 theyare apparently black or nearly blackand
small. In 2 they are nearly color-less in alcoholicspecimens and
rather larger than usual in the genus, but considerably smaller than in PonLophilusgracilis, avery
closely allied speciesfound
in200
to500
fathoms. In 7and
8 they are smalland
light colored. In 10 they are rather smalland dark brown.
In .14, 15and
16 they are not con-spicuously different in sizefrom
those of allied shallow-water speciesand
aredark
brown.However
strongmay
be
thearguments
of the physicists against the possibility of light penetrating the depthsfrom
which
these animals come, the colorand
the structure of their eyes, ascompared
with blind cave-dwellingspecies,show
con-clusively that the darkness beneath two-thousandfathoms
of sea-water is very different from that of ordinary caverns.While
itmay
be possible that this modification of the darkness of the ocean abysses isdue
to phosphorescence of the animals themselves, it does notseem
probable thatit is whollydue
to this cause.The
large size of the eggs is amarked
feature inmany
of the deep-waterDecapoda.
The
eggsofEupagurus
politusfrom
50
to500
fathoms, aremore
than eight times thevolume
of those of the closely alliedand
larger E. bernharclusfrom
shal-low
water,and
in Sabinea princeps, from400
to900
fathoms, they aremore
than fifteen times as large as in S. septemcarinatafrom
25 to150
fathoms.The
most
remarkable
cases areamong
the deep-water genera. Oalacantha rostrataand
G.Bairdii,
from
between
1000
and 1500
fathoms,have
eggs 3mm
in diameter in alcoholic specimens, while in thevastly larger lobster they are less than 2mm
.The
largest crustacean eggsknown
tome
are those of Parapasiphae sulcatifrons, a slendershrimp
less than three inches long, takenbetween 1000 and
3000
fathoms. Alcoholic specimens of these eggs are fully4
by
5mm
in shorterand
longer diameter, fully ten times thevolume
of the eggs ofPasiphae tardafrom
100 to200
fathoms,more
than threehundred and
fifty times thevolume
of those of amuch
larger shallow-water Paicemon,and
eachone
more
than a
hundredth
of thevolume
of the largest individualof the species.From
the peculiarenvironment
of deep-water species itseems
probable thatmany
ofthem
passthrough an
abbreviated