In the past, deep-sea water samples for bacteriological purposes have been taken either by means of water-bottles provided with taps, and so made that the sample came in contact with metal, or in evacuated sterilized glass vessels drawn out to a fine point and sealed in the flame. The water-bottle is difficult to sterilize on account of the taps, and the results obtained are vitiated by the bactericidal action of metals. The sealed glass tube is free from these defects, but at even moderate depths it is liable to collapse on the sudden change of pressure when the end of the capillary portion is broken off.

Material from Loch Fyne referable to Monoculodes gibbosus Chevreux (Oedicerotidae) has been discovered in the Reference Collection at Millport originally labelled by David Robertson as M. stimpsoni Bate. This is the first British record of this little known species. A detailed redescription is provided and comparison made with French material (including the holotype). A revised key to the British species is presented.

Four new species of the genus Leucon and subgenus Leucon (sensu Watling, 1991) are described from the Atlantic Frontier Margin and other north-east Atlantic localities. They are L. sarsi sp. nov., L. holti sp. nov., L. hanseni sp. nov. and L. afeni sp. nov. Leucon hanseni sp. nov. has previously been wrongly identified as L. serratus, the holotype of which is illustrated here. A lectotype is selected for L. nathorsti and the species is redescribed from the type series and from Atlantic Frontier Margin material. A list of other Leucon (Leucon) species found in the Atlantic Frontier Environmental Network surveys is given.

The known geographical distribution of the sea anemone Actinothoe sphyrodeta (Gosse) (Cnidaria, Actiniaria), hitherto generally believed to occur in the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean from the Shetland Islands to the Bay of Biscay, has been extended with new records from the Iberian Peninsula. These records comprise three from the west coast of Portugal and one from the Mediterranean coast of Spain.

The sea anemones (Actiniaria) of the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean have been closely studied for at least a century and a half, and along with those of the Mediterranean Sea, constitute perhaps the best known actiniarian fauna in the world. Furthermore, there has long been discussion of the endemicity of Mediterranean sea anemones, and of apparent overlaps between the distributions of some Atlantic and Mediterranean species. It is, therefore, of particular interest when a species thought to have a solely Atlantic or solely Mediterranean distribution is discovered on the ‘wrong’ side of the Strait of Gibraltar. The anemone Actinothoe sphyrodeta (Gosse) was hitherto generally believed to occur only in north-western Europe, with a range from the Shetland Islands to the Bay of Biscay (e.g. Fischer, 1890; Manuel, 1981). It is reported here for the first time from Portugal and from the Mediterranean coast of Spain.

The structure of hitherto-unknown exocrine glands in the caudal rami of the pelagic copepods of the genus Calanus was investigated, together with the vertical, diel and seasonal variations in the occurrence of granules secreted from the glands. Zooplankton samples were collected in Sagami Bay by vertical tows of a net from 4 discrete layers at 250-m intervals in the upper 1000 m both day and night, with an additional seasonal sampling in the upper 200 m. The samples contained copepodids of Calanus sinicus (stages IV–VI), C. jashnovi (stages IV–V), and unidentified Calanus (stages I–III), which possessed the glands regardless of the developmental stage and sex. Each caudal ramus has an inner- and an outer gland each of which opens in a pore at the ventral base of a caudal seta. According to light microscopy the cavities of only the inner glands contained many transparent granules, some of which appeared to have been discharged to the environment. The granules were present regardless of day/night, depth, and season, with the maximum number of 52/copepod. The cells surrounding the inner cavity contained well-developed rough endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, Golgi-bodies, and secretory granules; the outer cavity contained granules of much lower density than those in the inner cavity. These observations rule out the possible functions of the glands for egg and sex pheromone production, and suggest most likely function is predator avoidance. However, neither has mechanical disturbance excited luminescence, nor has ultraviolet emission excited fluorescence, suggesting the secretion is non-luminescent. Alternative possible functions include secretion of defensive substances or substances that might enhance swarm formation. A survey of preserved copepod collections indicated presence of similar glands in Calanus helgolandicus, C. pacificus, Cosmocalanus darwinii, Mesocalanus tenuicornis, and Nannocalanus minor, suggesting evolution of the glands in the common ancestor of these species that comprise a monophyletic group within the Calanidae.

Many free-living and parasitic invertebrates have been known to tolerate low oxygen tensions and anaerobic conditions. Von Brand (1946) who reviewed the extensive literature on anaerobiosis in invertebrates listed species of Cyclops which under experimental conditions could tolerate 2–18 h of anaerobiosis. Apart from this, few experimental studies have been made on anaerobiosis in copepods, especially the parasitic species. Availability of a number of live Caligus diaphanus at Plymouth made it possible to make a few preliminary observations on the behaviour of this copepod parasite under anaerobic conditions.

Measurements during autumn and winter of the lower median lethal temperature of the barnacle Balanus balanoides (L.) under natural and modified environmental conditions in field and laboratory, show that the cold resistant state is advanced by three factors: short day photoperiod, reduced food assimilation and reduced temperature. Their relative efficacy is in that order.

These factors combine in promoting breeding and the acquisition of the cold tolerant state during autumn and winter. Although normally associated, breeding and cold tolerance are not mutually dependent; the one can be induced without the other under abnormal conditions.

Similar measurements made in the spring show that only a single factor is required to terminate the cold tolerant state — resumption of food assimilation. If feeding is discontinued in the spring, however, the cold tolerant state tends to return, but animals that have bred do not breed again until the following autumn.

Of the three well established mechanisms for seasonal cold tolerance — production of substances to cause freezing hysteresis, production of cryoprotective agents, and nucleating agents to promote freezing in the intercellular compartment — only the last can be entertained since the cold tolerant animal survives some 80% of the body fluids being converted to ice. The cold tolerant condition may also relate to higher levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids being present in the membrane lipid fraction in winter, so rendering cell membranes less prone to damage by ice crystals.

The suggestion is made that normal metabolic activity and tolerance of low chemical potential of water - the common factor in freezing and desiccation - are not compatible.

1. It is suggested that the population of haddock (Gadus aeglefinus L.) on the Porcupine Bank is largely a self-contained stock.

2. This stock had complete immunity from trawling from December 1940, to September 1944.

3. In 1939 and 1940 there was an abundance of small haddock in this stock, due to the good brood of 1938. In 1944, this brood was still very abundant, and was then joined by the good brood of 1942.

4. These two good broods, growing up immune from fishing mortality, caused the Porcupine Bank to carry, in 1944, the densest stock of haddock ever experienced there.

5. The average number of sclerites in the first zone of the scales of these fish is the highest recorded in any region. It is still high in the second zone, but in the later zones falls below that found in the scales of haddock from other regions.

6. The growth rate was faster, in the first four years of life, than even that of Iceland and Faroe haddock, but in the later years it fell behind these, though still superior to the growth rate of the North Sea haddock.

7. The expectation that this greatly increased stock of haddock, due to the war-time cessation of fishing, would show a slowing in its rate of growth, due to intensified competition for the available food, is not supported by the facts.

The sea urchin egg has proved a reliable and robust system for measuring intracellular calcium release in response to three independent mechanisms: inositol 1,4,5 trisphosphate, cyclic ADP-ribose and the recently identified molecule, nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAADP). These calcium release mechanisms have been studied in homogenates of Lytechinus pictus and Spongylocentrotus purpuratus, which are two sea urchin species located off the west coast of the USA. A new calcium-release model from a species of sea urchin present off the coasts of Britain, Psammechinus miliaris is characterized and described. Although the Ca2+-release characteristics in this species do not differ from those of the other two sea urchin species, it may provide a more economical and convenient model for European scientists.

Towed underwater TV observations at 440 m in the northern Evoikos Gulf, Greece, revealed a soft mud plain heavily bioturbated by the thalassinidean Calocaris macandreae, with Callianassa subterranea and Nephrops norvegicus also present. Ejecta mounds and feeding traces indicated the presence of a large echiuran, provisionally identified as Maxmuelleria gigas. The locality also supported a dense population of a second echiuran, Bonellia viridis, a species not previously recorded as an inhabitant of sedimentary environments.

The hyperbenthic mysid, Boreomysis nobilis G.O. Sars, 1879 (Malacostraca: Peracarida), is reported from nine new locations around the island of Newfoundland in eastern Canada. It is commonest within and at the mouths of deep fjords and is less common or absent outside these fjords. Its absence from two bays where the depths, temperatures and salinities are all within the range inhabited by B. nobilis in other bays indicates that other factors are probably influencing local distribution patterns. The catch rates for B. nobilis are highest in the deep water within 150 m of the bottom. However, no differences were found in the vertical distribution of the different life-history stages of B. nobilis and no evidence was found for large-scale diel vertical migrations. Boreomysis nobilis was found to breed throughout the year, since all developmental stages were present on all sampling dates. However, there was a period of increased breeding activity in the late spring and early summer. An examination of the relationship between brood size, body volume of ovigerous females, and number of stage 1 larvae indicates that B. nobilis produced a smaller number of larger larvae than expected for epipelagic and coastal mysids

The capture of the short-beaked garfish,Belone svetovidovi Collette & Parin 1970, off the Cornish coast is of particular interest in that it represents an easterly extension to the known range of this species in the eastern North Atlantic, and the first record in British waters.

In August 1990 seven garfish were angled, on mackerel bait, in Mount's Bay, Cornwall. The captor, Mr A.C. Cass, believing the garfish to be different from the common garfish,Belone belone (L.), sent the largest one to the laboratory of the Marine Biological Association for identification. The specimen was provisionally identified as the short-beaked garfish B. svetovidovi and later verified by one of us (A.W.). The other six specimens were not available for examination.

Garfish, sometimes called needlefishes, have elongated bodies. Both upper and lower jaws are long and beak-like, with sharp teeth. They are epipelagic, feeding near the surface and are often observed leaping and skittering over the surface of the water. Only two species are recorded in the genus Belone in the north-eastern Atlantic.Belone belone (including subspecies) is commonly found off the European Atlantic coast as far north as Trondheim, Norway. It is also found in the North Sea, the southern Baltic seas, the Mediterranean and Black Sea where it is commercially exploited (Collette & Parin, 1986).Belone svetovidovi has only recently been distinguished from B. belone, and consequently its abundance and distribution are less well known. It was first identified in northern European waters by Dorman (1984,1987) from southern Ireland.

Loxosomella tonsoria (Entoprocta: Loxosomatidae) was found associated with the polynoid polychaete Lepidonotus clava collected among the algae and debris scraped from the intertidal level at the rocky shore of Limens (Pontevedra, Spain). New features are added to the original description, together with the first description of its buds. Host specificity of the genus and distribution of this species are discussed.

The athecate hydroids Coryne pintneri Schneider and Thecocodium brieni Bouillon, previously unreported from British waters, have been found near Oban, western Scot-land. Descriptions and figures are given, with observations on behaviour in culture. It is considered that Coryne pintr.eri is specifically distinct from Coryne filiformis (Rees). The feeding response of Thecocodium brieni is described, and it is concluded that it ismediated chemically by diffusion of exudate from captured prey. Response to mechanical stimulation is also described: it evidently is transmitted through the stolonal network, but it is not known whether this is via nervous or non-nervous tissue. The occurrence in Scotland of thesetwo species, previously known only from north-west France and the Mediterranean, is attributedto their probable introduction on oysters from Brittany, France.