Tanaidacea (Crustacea, Peracarida) of the North-east Atlantic: the Agathotanaidae of the AFEN, BIOFAR and BIOICE projects, with a description of a new species of Paragathotanais Lang

The tanaidacean fauna of the Iceland-Faroes-Shetlands sector of the North-east Atlantic was studied using material from the BIOFAR, BIOICE and AFEN surveys. Seven agathotanaid species were recorded from the genera Agathotanais, Paragathotanais and Paranarthrura, a total comparable to those from a similar bathymetric range in the Rockall-Biscay area and the Gulf of Mexico. A new species of Paragathotanais is described. All records of this family were from benthic stations with a mean bottom temperature of = 2 degrees C, with none from the 'cold-water' region north of the Iceland-Shetlands ridge complex. An analysis of North-east Atlantic agathotanaid sex-ratios shows that these are not highly skewed in favour of females and are consistent with the status of the males as relatively non-dimorphic and long-lived entities.