Search

Thirteen essentially (holo)pelagic species of Mysidacea (Lophogastrida and Mysida), plus five benthopelagic species were taken with vertical plankton hauls (mostly 1000-0 m depth) and by examining the stomach contents of benthopelagic fish (from 550-700 m) in restricted areas of the NE Atlantic Ocean. The families Gnathophausiidae, Lophogastridae, and Eucopiidae are each represented by two species, the Mysidae by 12 species. A first description of the previously unknown male and a supplementary description of the female are given for Longithorax alicei, so far known only from the Canary archipelago. First records for the northern hemisphere are given for two South Atlantic species, Boreomysis bispinosa from the Cape Verde archipelago and Katerythrops resimora from the Canary Islands. Additional new records for the Canary Islands are Gnathophausia zoea, Lophogaster spinosus, and Longithorax nouveli. Among the 12 species of Mysidae examined, ten showed statoliths mineralized with fluorite (CaF), while two Boreomysis species showed comparatively soft, non-mineralized statoliths. Most of the 29 pelagic species so far known from the Selvagens, the Canary, and the Cape Verde Islands belong to the circumtropical deep-water fauna. The local pelagic fauna shows no particular correspondence with that in the Mediterranean, because the two areas have almost nothing but ubiquitous species in common. By contrast, ten benthopelagic species so far recorded from pelagic (plankton) samples off the Canary Islands are endemic in the eastern Atlantic, in most cases including the Mediterranean