Støp-Bowitz, Carl 1948. Polychaeta from the "Michael Sars" North Atlantic deep-sea expedition 1910. Report on the Scientific Results of the Michael Sars North Atlantic Deep-Sea Expedition, 5(8): 1-91.
51838
Støp-Bowitz, C.
1948
Polychaeta from the "Michael Sars" North Atlantic deep-sea expedition 1910. Report on the Scientific Results of
the Michael Sars North Atlantic Deep-Sea Expedition
None. Begins: "During the cruise of 1910 the "Michael Sars" gathered a rich material of Polychaeta, which has been handed to me for examination. The material contains representatives of 75 species dispersed on 51 genera and 20 families. Five of these species are new to science, one of them being so aberrant as to form a new genus (Watelio). We should perhaps have expected a greater number of new species, but the polychaete fauna of the northern and central Atlantic is already comparatively well known. Thus Langerhans has studied the fauna of Madeira and the Canary Islands, and Fauvel, who has examined the abundant polychaete material from the collections of Prince Albert 1. of Monaco, has given a very good account of the polychaete fauna of the northern Atlantic. By far the largest part of the material consists of pelagic species, belonging chiefly to the five families Aphroditidae (subfamily Polynoinae) , Phyllodocidae (subfamily Lopadorhynchinae) , Alciopidae, Tomopteridae and Typhloscolecidae. Pelagic species are found all over the examined field, both along the European and the African coast and in the open sea, whereas benthonic species are taken only along the European and African coast from north of Scotland (St. 102) to the Canary Islands, at one station (56) by the Azores (? Pygospio elegans) , and at one station in the open sea (St. 70, S of New Foundland, where only benthonic and some bathypelagic species are collected). Most of the pelagic species are taken in greater quantities. Of the benthonic species only one (Hyalinoecia tubicola) is brought home from more than one station. The study of this great material is zoogeographically of certain importance, as it allows us to make some comparisons between the pelagic polychaete fauna of the northern and of the central Atlantic. Last follow five tables showing the horizontal and vertical distribution &c of the pelagic species, and a list of stations with the species found at each of them.
