The Caridea (Decapoda) Collected by the Mid-Pacific Mountains Expedition, 1968

Abstract

Thirty-three species of caridean decapods have been identified from samples taken from the guyots and their vicinity, a little-sampled region of the mid-Pacific Ocean. Considering the oligotrophic character of the environment, a remarkably diverse collection has been collected. For the most part the species are mesopelagic and bathypelagic and have a widespread, if not cosmopolitan, distribution. Nevertheless, for many species these records extend their distribution much farther north and east in the Pacific than was previously known. The few epibenthic species present are more circumscribed in their distribution. Two of these were found to be previously undescribed and are described here.