Vol. 53 - Alaska Resources Library and Information Services

6.3 Hippolytidae
The Hippolytidae are the largest family of shrimp with respect to
number of species in the North Pacific Ocean (Butler 1980) and are represented
by 17 or more species in the southeastern Bering Sea (see
Appendix A).
As a group they are generally small to medium sized shrimp
dominating the 40-80 m depths of the continental shelf (Ivanov 1969;
Table 6.2).
Larval descriptions appear in the literature for five
species (Williamson 1957; Haynes 1978b; Pike and Williamson 1960;
Appendix B) while mention of the others is either incomplete or totally
lacking.
There is a wide range in number of hippolytid zoeal stages
from 2 in lebbeids to 5-9 in eualids (Table 6.3).
No complete larval
series is available for Heptacarpus.
Adult descriptions are given by Butler (1980) for Eualus avinus, E.
barbatus, E. fabricii, E. pusiolus, E. townsendi, Heptacarpus camtschatica,
H. moseri, Lebbeus yrandimanus, L. yroenlandicus, Spirontocaris arcuata,
S. lamellicornis, S. ochotensis, S. prionata, and S. snyderi.
Additional species of hippolytids may have been overlooked in compiling
the list in the appendix.
The most abundant of these species are probably
E. gaimardii belcheri, E. macilentus, and one of the spirontocarids
in our study area.
The crucial role these species play in the food web of the Bering
Sea is reflected in such studies as Lowry et al. (OCS 1981 report).
They
showed that Eualus gaimardii belcheri feeds upon ostracods, euphausids,
copepods and benthic phytoplankton.
In turn, E. belcheri comprised
20-38% volume by of the total diet of ringed seal pups and was the major
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