On examining a sample of tanaids from the bathybenthos of the Rockall Trough, part of an extensive collection made by the Scottish Marine Biological Association (S.M.B.A), some very thin translucent tubes were noted. In these could be discerned several tanaids, one of which was extremely elongate. These proved to belong to a new genus, the adults of which were even more filiform than Filitanais moskalevi Kudinova-Pasternak, 1973. Scrutiny by the authors of other Rockall Trough samples has resulted in more adult specimens of this remarkable new tanaid being obtained. In this paper it is diagnosed and described, together with a discussion of its biology.

The shells of marine invertebrates grow incrementally (Wilbur, 1972). When a section of shell is observed under the microscope, the increments are often visible, separated by fine lines (Fig. 1). Studies of these phenomena have focused chiefly on the periodicity of increment and growth-line formation, principally because of its geological or archaeological application as a ‘biological clock’ (e.g. Wells, 1963; Koike, 1973).

The genus Echinus is common throughout the entire northern North Sea. Echinus esculentus L. predominates in the shallow water off the eastern Scottish coast down to 100 m, while the small variety of Echinus acutus var. norvegicus (Düben and Koren) is rarely found in depths of less than 100 m and is most commonly located in the north-eastern area of the North Sea (Cranmer, 1985).

In the course of a study by Gibbs (1984) of the reproductive biology and the population dynamics of the bivalve Abra tenuis (Montagu) collected from the Fleet, a brackish water lagoon in Dorset, and from the Plym Estuary, Plymouth, a number of species of apparently pathogenic larval digeneans was found. These could not be satisfactorily identified from their larval characters alone, and following collaboration with Professor J. Llewellyn (personal communication) it was decided that they should be made the subject of a further study.

Certain shallow-water embayments (< 1 m) along the Swedish west coast have recently been documented as highly productive areas for both infauna (Moller & Rosenberg, 1982, 1983) and mobile epifauna (Pihl & Rosenberg, 1982) as well as important nursery and feeding grounds for fish (Pihl, 1982; Evans, 1983). The present report, dealing with Nereis diversicolor O. F. Miiller, complements the earlier descriptions of recruitment, abundance and production of the dominant infauna species Mya arenaria L., Cardium (Cerastoderma) edule L. and Corophium volutator (Pallas) in these rather sheltered shallow areas in the archipelago of western Sweden.

When scanning electron microscopy became integrated with X-ray micro-analysis, it became an easy matter to localize an object and perform a semi-quantitative elemental analysis of atoms of atomic number 11 or higher using an energy dispersive spectrometer. This technique is used in the present study to determine the chemistry of the statoliths of eight hydromedusae, two scyphomedusae, one cubozoan and a ctenophore with respect to their comparative biomineralization and the relationship of the mineral to their taxonomy.

Information regarding spawning grounds of the Atlantic herring Clupea harengus Linnaeus has been based mainly on the collection of spawning fish, newly hatched larvae, or the presence of eggs within the stomachs of predators (Postuma, Saville & Wood, 1977). This type of evidence indicates general areas of spawning, rather than accurately delineating the spawning grounds. Though samples of spawn have been obtained from several localities in the North-East Atlantic (Ewart, 1884; Runnström, 1941; Fridriksson & Timmerman, 1951; Bolster & Bridger, 1957; Parrish et al. 1959; Hemmings, 1965; Bowers, 1969; Anthony, Sauskan & Sigaer, 1970), few quantitative studies of individual grounds have been made. In consequence, little is known of the factors influencing the selection of grounds by Atlantic herring, the shape of these grounds and egg distribution within spawning areas.

Elasmobranchs, unlike teleosts, do not possess otoliths or scales suitable for age determination. Various skeletal structures of elasmobranchs have been used in an attempt to find a reliable ageing technique. These include the centra of Raja fusca (Ishiyama, 1951). R. eglanteria (Daiber, 1960), R. erinacea (Richards, Merriman & Calhoun, 1963) and Cetorhinus maximus (Parker & Stott, 1965). Yokota (1951, 1952) has described annual growth increments on the claspers of various elasmobranch species. Stevens (1975) made vertebral ring counts in the blue shark, Prionace glauca L. More recently Jones & Geen (1977a,b), using X-ray spectrometric analysis, have examined the vertebral circuli of dogfish found in British Columbia waters. Methods of age determination, using the spines of the spurdog (Squalus acanthias L.) have been described by Kaganovskaia (1933, 1937), Bonham et al. (1949) and Aasen (1961). All these authors assumed that the more or less regular series of dark bands or ‘rings’, extending from a white pigment-free base of the enamel to near the tip, were annual. Holden & Meadows (1962), on the basis of the internal and external features of the spines, concluded that the dark bands did represent annual growth increments. In particular, they argued that the dark bands were laid down during the winter when growth would be slowest, whereas the faster growth in the summer was represented by the light bands. Holden & Meadows (1962) identified several conditions, e.g. birth, double, false and spawning rings – that made interpretation of the ring structure and subsequent age determination difficult.

The heart-body in Neoamphitrite figulus (Dalyell) forms a mass of tissue within the supra-oesophageal vessel almost occluding the lumen. The tissue forms a much-infolded cylinder enclosed by a basal lamina consisting of a fibrous reticulum through which the assembled haemoglobin molecules are discharged into the plasma (Dales & Pell, 1970). A function of both the heart-body and the extravasal (‘chloragogen’) tissue in polychaetes without a heart-body was established by biochemical analysis (Kennedy & Dales, 1958; Dales, 1963, 1965) to be the synthesis of plasma haemoglobin (erythrocruorin) or chlorocruorin. This was confirmed by electron microscopy (TEM) by Breton-Gorius (1963) in Arenicola, Potswald (1969) in Spirorbis, Dales & Pell (1970) in Neoamphitrite, Lattice, Myxicola, Megalomma and Sabella, and by Friedmann & Weiss (1980) in Amphitrite. It would appear that the same tissues also sequester phagocytosed materials (Braunbeck & Dales, 1984). Re-examination of this tissue by trans-mission electron microscopy (TEM) has extended our knowledge of the ultra-structure. Here we discuss these results in relation to the function of these tissues in the production of the respiratory pigments found in the plasma. Some heart-bodies of Terebella lapidaria L., Lattice conchilega (Pallas) and Cirriformia tentaculata (Montagu) have also been examined by TEM for comparison with that of Neoamphitrite figulus.

Risso's dolphin (Grampus griseus) (Cuvier, 1812) is not common off the coast of Devon although strandings are occasionally reported. Norman & Fraser (1948) noted that 45 had been stranded on the British coast over a period of 33 years and that these were concentrated in the south-west. While it is regularly stated that this animal eats squids exclusively the prey species have not been identified. In view of the variety of squids available to an oceanic mammal and the information its food can give on both the migration of the dolphin and the ecology of the cephalopods in its diet the stranding of a Risso's dolphin at Thurlestone Rock on 12 May 1983 provided an unusual and welcome opportunity to examine the animal and its food.

While the sprat, Sprattus sprattus (L.), may live for up to a total of six years, at the end of which time the total length can exceed 150 mm, the fishery in British waters is based primarily on the second, third and fourth year classes (Robertson, 1936, 1938; De Silva, 1973). Historically, the sprat was a major contributor to the fishery of the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary (Matthews, 1933; Lloyd, 1942). Although this fishery has declined during recent decades, the sprat has remained an important component of the teleost fauna of the region. This point is illustrated by the observation that S. sprattus was by far the most abundant of all teleosts in plankton samples taken throughout the Bristol Channel between the spring and autumn of 1974 (Russell, 1980). While length–frequency data were provided by Russell (1980) for these recently spawned sprat and there is comparable information for those sprat which form the basis of the commercial fishery in the Bristol Channel (Lloyd, 1942), no such data are available for those members of the population which are known sometimes to enter the Severn Estuary in considerable numbers (Lloyd, 1941).

A high degree of variation in hydrographic conditions is found in the so-called Iroise Sea, within less than 100 km of the west coast of Brittany. Tidal current maximal velocity, especially, ranges there from about 0·5 knot to more than 8 knots (locally, near the island of Ushant), i.e. practically as wide a range as found over the whole of north-west European shelf seas. Pelagic ecosystems accordingly exhibit a high degree of variety, related not only to classical inshore-offshore gradients, but also to the extent of vertical mixing or stratification. Areas where different physical and biological conditions prevail are generally separated by rather clearcut boundaries. The better-known of these is the Ushant thermal front, which runs in summer across the whole entrance to the English Channel, but also extends into the Iroise. In addition, freshwater runoff results in thermohaline stratification, or at least in the existence of thermohaline vertical gradients, in the two major bays of the west coast of Brittany. The relevant area is limited seawards by a thermohaline front, the Iroise inner front (Grail & Le Fèvre, 1967; Le Fèvre & Grall, 1970), beyond which are found the well-mixed waters inshore of the Ushant front. Fig. 1 sums up these hydrographic patterns in the area taken here into consideration.

The sand smelt (Atherina presbyter Cuvier) is a small, pelagic inshore fish common on some coasts of Britain. The biology of the sand smelt population in Southampton Water, Hants., U.K., has been described in detail (Turnpenny, Bamber & Henderson, 1981), but individuals less than 3 months old were not found during the course of that study.

In a recent paper we reported on the discovery of an adhesive antennular secretion used by exploring cyprids of Balanus balanoides (L.) and hinted at its possible implication in settlement behaviour (Walker & Yule, 1984). This secretion is thought to be modified integumentary protein. Since the integumentary protein of adult B. balanoides is widely accepted as a powerful stimulus to settlement (Knight-Jones, 1953; Crisp & Meadows, 1962, 1963; Larman, Gabbott & East, 1982), we devised settlement experiments in May 1984 to investigate whether cyprid antennular secretion acts in a similar manner. The outcome of these experiments with B. balanoides cyprids is presented here.

This paper is the third and last in a series employing cohort growth-analysis techniques to describe the secondary production of the major component species in the macrobenthic communities of the Bristol Channel. Previous studies were made in soft-bottom areas of a Venus community (Warwick, George & Davies, 1978) and an Abra community (Warwick & George, 1980). The hard-bottom areas of the Channel support what might classically be denned as a Modiolus community (sensu Thorson 1957; see Warwick & Davies, 1977), but within these communities Modiolus itself is inconspicuous because of its small size. This community is found in its purest form on the rock-floors of the central region of the Channel, but gravel accumulates in areas of slower current seaward of this region and may often have admixtures of finer sediment accommodating a mixed-bottom subgroup of the Modiolus community, containing additional species more typical of soft bottoms. The intention of this study was to examine a site representative of the community in its purest form. Quantitative grab sampling in the rock-floor areas was naturally impossible, but fortunately areas exist in which extensive reefs of the tubeworm Sabellaria spinulosa Leuckart are found, and the structure of these reefs is sufficiently brittle that quantitative grab samples can be collected. Such sites have a more diverse fauna than the open rock areas, the interstices of the reef providing a refuge for a large number of smaller species.

In common with many teleosts, herring show marked ‘fast startle’ responses when subjected to sound stimuli from a vibrating source (Blaxter, Gray & Denton, 1981). These comprise a sharp C-shaped contortion of the body; the fish respond to transients of as little as half a cycle of sound with a latency of about 25 ms and the turn is usually away from the sound source. There is good evidence that the Mauthner cells are implicated in other species (see Eaton & Hackett, 1984) but this has not been established in the herring, although they are known to be present.

The lateral-line system of water-living lower vertebrates is provided with mechanoreceptors enabling the animals to detect water displacements, either caused by moving objects such as prey, predators or neighbours in a school or by deformations of pressure waves from the swimming animal caused by other objects. Cyclostomes, some fish and water–living amphibians have their lateral-line organs situated superficially in the epidermis as free neuromasts, while most fish besides these neuromasts possess a canal system in the dermis. Ordinarily the lateral line canal system consists of a few canals on the sides of the head and a trunk canal. In herring, however, the canal system is confined to the head and opercule. It forms a very richly branched system with numerous pores which connect the canal fluid with the surrounding sea water.

Whereas there is a wealth of literature on the feeding of herbivorous holo-plankton, notably copepods, feeding by herbivorous larvae of benthic animals has been somewhat neglected. This paper considers the functional feeding response of veliger larvae of Ostrea edulis L., Crassostrea gigas (Thunberg) and Mytilus edulis L. fed on several micro-algal species. It also provides some data on the influence of temperature on feeding, and assesses the energy needs of the larvae in relation to their potential ingestion rate and to the availability in the sea of micro-organisms on which they feed.

The English Channel was the site of the discovery of the phylum Kinorhyncha in 1841 by the French zoologist Felix Dujardin. Although initially reported from St Malo, Rennes, and Paris by Dujardin (1851), St Vaast la Hougue, France was the site from which the first species, Echinoderes dujardinii Claparede, 1863 was described 12 years later. Since then, E. dujardinii has been reported from many localities in northern Europe as well as from the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and the Canary Islands (cf. Higgins, 1983). Reports of this species from various North Pacific Ocean localities are either incorrect or higher questionable (Higgins, 1983).

Five species of rockling: Gaidropsaurus vulgaris (Cloquet), G. mediterraneus (L.), Rhinonemus (Enchelyopus) cimbrius (L.), Ciliata mustela (L.) and C. septentrionalis (Collett), are commonly recorded from British waters. With the exception of G. mediterraneus, which has not been recorded from the North Sea, the other four species occur all round the British coasts. Two additional species have recently been added to the list of British fishes, Antonogadus macrophthalmus (Günther), a southern boreal species and Onogadus argentatus (Reinhardt), a northern boreal species (Wheeler, 1969; Russell, 1976). The identity of adult A. macrophthalmus is, however, still in confusion. It is not clearly known if it is a different species from A. megalokynodon Kolombotovic (a species which occurs in the Mediterranean and adjacent Atlantic waters), since both of them are considered as synonyms of G. biscayensis (Collett) (Bini, 1970; Tortonese, 1970; Svetovidov, 1973). Cohen & Russo (1979) have since relegated Onogadus and Antonogadus to synonyms of Gaidropsaurus, though the exact number of species is uncertain.