Paraeuchaeta barbata (Brady 1883)

Euchaeta barbata Brady, 1883

This species was originally described from the southwestern Atlantic and has been known to occur widely over the tropical, subtropical, and temperate zones of the World Ocean. With (1915) distinguished a large form of E. barbata in the Norwegian Sea as a separate species, E. farrani, which was subsequently also found in the Antarctic seas by Farran (1929) and Vervoort (1957). This bipolar species shows no morphological differences from E. barbata except for the body size and appears to be only a geographical race rather than a separate species.

In the present study, E. barbata was found rather consistently, although in small numbers, in tows down to depths of 1000 to 3000 m. Altogether 82 females and 23 males have been identified from the Gulf of Mexico and western Caribbean Sea. The body length varied between 7.58 and 8.42 mm in the female and between 6.58 and 7.25 mm in the male. The prosome length of the female and male was 5.42-6.08 mm and 4.45-5.25 mm, respectively.