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Publication Date:
February 2011
ISSN:
2081-8262
DOI:
10.2478/v10183-011-0001-0

Polish Polar Research

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The sea-spiders (Arthropoda: Pycnogonida) of Admiralty Bay, King George Island

Roger Bamber1,

ARTOO Marine Biology Consultants, Ocean Quay Marina, Belvidere Road, Southampton SO14 5QY, United Kingdom1

Zakļad Biologii Polarnej i Oceanobiologii, Uniwersytet Łódzki, ul. Banacha 12/16, Łódź 90-237, Poland2

Citation Information: Polish Polar Research. Volume 32, Issue 1, Pages 27–38, ISSN (Online) 2081-8262, ISSN (Print) 0138-0338, DOI: 10.2478/v10183-011-0001-0, February 2011

Publication History:
Published Online:
2011-02-21

The sea-spiders (Arthropoda: Pycnogonida) of Admiralty Bay, King George Island

Between 1979 and 2007, various sampling projects from the Polish Arctowski Research Station in Admiralty Bay, King George Island, Antarctica, collected a diverse assemblage of pycnogonids, inter alia. Examination of this material has revealed 24 species in 11 genera and six families: all of this material is described. Samples were from poorly-sorted fine-sand to coarse-silt substrata, at depths between 27 and 405 m. The diverse assemblage was of species consistent with the known pycnogonid fauna of these depths in the South Shetlands and the Palmer Archipelago region, and includes a number of species recorded for only the second time since the types. As typical for Antarctic waters, the predominant and most diverse genus was Nymphon (nine species); the prevalent species was Nymphon eltaninae, not Nymphon australe: implications for the apparent wide-distribution of records of the latter species are discussed. These records increase the biogeographical range of Nymphon subtile and Nymphon punctum from Subantarctic waters to the Scotia Sea.

Keywords: Antarctic; King George Island; benthos; Pycnogonida

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