Deep-Water Crustacea of the Genus Sergestes (Decapoda, Natantia) from Cook Strait, New Zealand
Geographic and Bathymetric Distribution
Geographic and Bathymetric Distribution
Sergestes japonicus is a well known deep-water species in the North Atlantic. Specimens were taken by the Michael Sars Expedition between about 125 and 1,050 fms. but those with a carapace length of 18 mm and over were never taken above 500 fms. (Sund, 1920). In 1938, Welsh and Chace were able to show from their "closing net" data that it is the only species of Sergestes in the North Atlantic which normally occurs below the level to which light penetrates (i.e., below the photic zone), being found usually below 500 fms. and regularly down to at least 1,000 fms.
Outside the North Atlantic, it has been recorded from only two localities in the Indopacific. The Challenger Expedition took it from deep water off Japan and the Philippines, these records being checked by Hansen (1903).
Thus it is now possible to record this small-eyed, deep-water species from Cook Strait, New Zealand, apparently the first record from the entire Southern Hemisphere.