Abstract
Observations were made on the reproduction and life history of five species of polychaetes collected from the continental slope off North Carolina, USA. Three species were studied at a 2000-m lower slope station off Cape Lookout (Aurospio dibranchiata, Microrbinia linea, and Pholoe anoculata) and the other two at a 600-m upper slope station off Cape Hatteras (Cossura longocirrata and Scalibregma inflatum). Aurospio dibranchiata, a surface feeding spionid, exhibited seasonally in egg diameter and size-frequency data, with the larger sizes occurring in late summer months. Pholoe anoculata, a small carnivorous scale worm, did not exhibit any evidence of seasonality in size-frequency data at the 2000-m station. Sexually mature specimens were absent from this population, but were present at shallower slope depths, indicating year-round recruitment into the lower slope from middle and upper slope populations.
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