Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2009, Page 158

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THE OCCURENCE OF TWO SPECIES OF THE FAMILY PRIAPUUDAE IN FAROESE WATERS
Wesenberg-Lund (1937), who investigated R
caudatus in East Greenland waters, found
them to be spread all over eastern Green-
land, but stated that it is evident that they
were scarce. This was also the impression
from lceland (Wesenberg-Lund, 1937b).
The majority of the specimens are found
in shallow waters. Only two of the stations
were from deeper water: one specimen from
808 m and one specimen from 1032 m
depth. There is no indication of any error
made in identification, labeling or any part
of the registration. Large specimens seem to
prefer very soft sediments, while smaller
specimens generally can be found in soft
sediments. It is remarkable that all the spec-
imens from shallow waters are found in the
fjords with no findings on the Faroe Plateau.
This could be because the seabed fabric of
the near shore and plateau are dominated by
seabed types not suitable for R caudatus.
This is not very likely, however, there are soft
bottom areas on the Faroe Plateau and on
the slope that have been heavily sampled
and did not contain any P. caudatus.
Priapulopsis bicaudatus is only registered
on the eastern slope of the Faroe Plateau in
a relatively narrow depth interval from 507
to 798 m. This isjust below the warm north-
ward flowing Atlantic waters, which reach
down to about 500 m, in the uppermost part
of the colder southward flowing water
masses from the Norwegian Sea to the north
of the Faroe Islands (Hansen and Østerhus,
2000).
Wesenberg-Lund (1937b) found P. bi-
caudatus to be restricted to the colder wa-
ters on the northern and eastern side of lce-
land and only found a few specimens at
depths from 90 - 220 m.
A possible explanation for the rather
special distribution in the Faroe area could
be the East lcelandic Current (EIC), which
more or less flows along the north and
eastern side of the lcelandic coast towards
the north of the Faroe Islands before making
a turn to the north and occasionally extends
down into the Faroe side of the Faroe-
Shetland Channel (Hansen and Østerhus,
2000). It is tempting to link the lcelandic
findings on the north and eastern side of
lceland to these Faroese findings.
Identification key
Key to species
1. One caudal appendage. The first (ante-
rior-most) ring of pharyngeal elements
consists of 5 large "normal" teeth. Pro-
boscular scalids more or less equal in
size.
In the Faroe area mostly found in soft
sediments in warm shallow waters (less
than 100 m) but can also be found
deeper.
Priapulus caudatus
2. Two caudal appendages The first (ante-
rior-most) ring of pharyngeal elements
consists of 10 minute rudimentary pecti-
nate plates. Proboscular scalids usually
arranged into sets of five where the first
one is larger than the others.
Cold water species from below 500 m
depth in the Faroe area.
Priapulopsis bicaudatus