The Occurrence of the smooth sand-eel, Gymnammodytes Semisquamatus (Jourdain), in the Plymouth area, with notes on G. cicerelus (Rafinesque), and G. capensis (Barnard)

Abstract

Gymnammodytes semisquatnatus, the North Atlantic smooth sand-eel, has a continuous distribution from southern Norway to the southern Atlantic coast-line of Spain. Its occurrence in the Irish Sea and in the Plymouth area are new records. In the latter area it is an off-shore species, apparently concentrating in shell gravel in winter for spawning. It has a mean vertebral number of slightly over 68 (Plymouth and Scottish specimens). A small sample of the Mediterranean species, G. cicerelus, gives a mean of just over 66, while the South African species, G. capensis, which is indistinguishable from G. semisquamatus by external non-metameric characters, has a much lower mean of 58·5.