Mysidacea
South Atlantic Mysids

Mysid collection records in general are considerably fewer than those of other zooplankton because mysids are difficult to collect with ordinary plankton nets, and South Atlantic records are especially limited. In this region, the most important contribution was made by O. S. Tattersall (1955). She examined materials collected by the R/V "Discovery" and other vessels during the period 1925 to 1950, and reported 95 species, including 28 new species. Species from the west coast of Africa and around the Falkland (=Malvinas) Islands covered herein owe a great deal to this report. Species from the Brazilian coasts were examined taxonomically by da Silva (1970a, b, 1971a, b, 1972, 1974, 1979), dos Reis and da Silva (1987), and B|cescu (1968a, b, c, 1969, 1984, 1986); and ecologically by Almeida Prado (1973, 1974). There are no reports of mysids along the coast from southern Brazil to Argentina, except for Mysidopsis rionegrensis, which was described by Hoffmeyer (1993) based on specimens from San Matías Gulf, and species around the Falklands (=Malvinas), which were collected by the "Discovery" expeditions. Taxonomic studies on the west coast of Africa were made at two localities, the southernmost area (O. S. Tattersall, 1952, 1958, 1962, 1969; Nouvel, 1973; Wooldridge and McLachlan, 1987), and around the equator (O. S. Tattersall, 1957, 1961; Wittmann, 1986, 1992). Ecological studies were performed on the southwest coast of Africa by Wooldridge (1981, 1983, 1986, 1989), Webb and Wooldridge (1990), and Webb et al. (1987).

Nearly 100 species of mysids are known from the South Atlantic Ocean to date, but many of them have only been recorded once or a few times. There are no species with enough records for compiling a distribution map. The geographic and vertical distributions of each species, as well as the correponding body lengths, are shown in Table 3a-c (table 3a, table 3b, table 3c).

—Epipelagic species (0-200 m) in open seas.
Anchialina typica and Siriella thompsoni. Both are distributed world-wide in warm water regions. Anchialina typica from the Atlantic is known as Anchialina typica typica and that from the Indian and Pacific Oceans as Anchialina typica orientalis (Nouvel, 1971).

—Mesopelagic species (200-800 m) in open seas.
Arachnomysis leuckarti, Arachnomysis megalops, Caesaromysis hispida, Echinomysis chuni, Euchaetomera glyphidophthalmica, Euchaetomera intermedia, Euchaetomera tenuis, Euchaetomera typica, Euchaetomera zurstrasseni, Euchaetomeropsis merolepis, Katerythrops oceanae, Longithorax capensis, Meterythrops picta. All these species belong to the tribe Erythropini. Many of them are cosmopolitan, but E. zurstrasseni has been recorded from the southern hemisphere, including the Antarctic, and Euchaetomera intermedia and Longithorax capensis have not been reported from the Pacific.

—Bathypelagic species (deeper than 800 m) in open seas.
Chalaraspidum alatum, Lophogaster spinosus, Gnathophausia gracilis, Gnathophausia zoea, Neognathophausia ingens, Neognathophausia gigas, Eucopia australis, Eucopia grimaldii, Eucopia unguiculata, Eucopia sculpticauda, Boreomysis acuminata, Boreomysis atlantica, Boreomysis bispinosa, Boreomysis illigi. The first nine species, except Lophogaster spinosus, are cosmopolitan. Some Boreomysis species have also been recorded from the North Atlantic or the Indian Oceans.

—Coastal species along northern South America (Brazilian coast).
Siriella chierchiae, Siriella melloi, Bowmaniella atlantica, Bowmaniella brasiliensis, Bowmaniella dissimilis, Bowmaniella inarticulata, Bowmaniella recifensis, Katerythrops brasiliana, Brasilomysis castroi, Metamysidopsis elongata atlantica, Metamysidopsis macaensis, Metamysidopsis munda, Metamysidopsis swifti, Mysidopsis coelhoi, Mysidopsis juniae, Mysidopsis sankarankuttyi, Mysidopsis scintilae, Mysidopsis tortonesei, Promysis atlantica, Mysidium gracile, Heteromysis mureseanui. Some of these also occur along the Central and North American coasts, but there are no species in common with the African coast and other regions. All the Bowmaniella species are known from the coasts of the American continents and the West Indies, except for B. banneri, which has been recorded off California.

—Coastal species along southern South America (Uruguay to South Georgia).
Lophogaster muranoi, Hansenomysis falklandica, Amblyopsoides obtusa, Pseudomma calmani, Pseudomma magellanensis, Pseudomma minutum, Mysidopsis acuta, Mysidopsis eremita, Mysidopsis rionegrensis, Arthromysis magellanica, Neomysis monticellii, Neomysis patagona, Mysidetes anomala, Mysidetes brachylepis, Mysidetes crassa, Mysidetes intermedia, Mysidetes macrops, Mysidetes patagonica. Lophogaster muranoi and Mysidopsis rionegrensis were collected off the coast of central Argentina. The other species have been recorded from the Subantarctic regions around the Falkland (=Malvinas) Islands, in the Strait of Magellan, and the southern part of the Patagonian Shelf.

—African coastal species.
Lophogaster challengeri, Boreomysis insolita, Siriella africana, Siriella dayi, Siriella wolffi, Anchialina truncata, Gastrosaccus brevifissura, Gastrosaccus kempi, Gastrosaccus namibensis, Gastrosaccus psammodytes, Gastrosaccus olivae, Erythrops africana, Erythrops bidentata, Hyperamblyops megalops, Katerythrops resimora, Afromysis hansoni, Leptomysis capensis, Leptomysis megalops, Mysidopsis bispinosa, Mysidopsis camelina, Mysidopsis eremita, Mysidopsis major, Mysidopsis schultzei, Mysidopsis similis, Mysidopsis suedafrikana, Nouvelia valdiviae, Paraleptomysis dimorpha, Mesopodopsis wooldridgei. Some of these species also inhabit the European and Mediterranean coasts, and off Africa in the Indian ocean. Gastrosaccus, a genus related to Bowmaniella, is distributed in Europe, Africa, India, Australia, and New Zealand, but is absent along North and South America.

—Species of undefined distribution.
Eucopia linguicauda, Heteroerythrops purpura. Collection records are too scanty to infer their general distribution pattern.