Decapod Crustacea from Calanus Collections in Hudson Bay in 1953, 1954, and 1958–61

Abstract

The Calanus expeditions in Hudson Bay in 1953, 1954, and 1958–61 collected 2240 specimens comprising 13 species of decapod Crustacea. A review of previous collections from this bay indicates that all but one of these species (Eualus macilentus) has been reported from the bay but any one expedition has taken at most only 10 species. The present collections took greater numbers of specimens off the northwest coast than elsewhere but more species off the Belcher Islands where a greater number of hauls were made compared with other areas. The greatest number of E. macilentus was taken in Richmond Gulf. Eualus macilentus appeared to be more cold-adapted than the other species, seven of which showed environmental stress by their apparently low reproductive potential. Most species in the bay, including the only brachyuran crab (Hyas coarctalus), were smaller than their counterparts from adjacent arctic and subarctic areas. As in the same species from other areas in the northwest Atlantic, selective feeding was apparent on detritus and phytobenthos in eight species, on crustaceans in six, on polychaetes in three, and on foraminiferans in two species. The origin of the decapod crustacean fauna in Hudson Bay is suggested to have been from the Pacific but by way of the northern Atlantic after the last great Ice Age.