A new species of hagfish of the genus Myxine, with notes on other eastern Atlantic myxinids

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Abstract
Myxine ios sp. nov. is a seven‐gilled hagfish occurring on the continental slope in the eastern North Atlantic, off West Africa and southwest Ireland. The two populations overlap in morphometric and meristic character, but the Irish population is distinguished by having a white head and a whitish middorsal or midventral line. More material and collections from intermediate localities are needed before it can be determined if the two populations are distinct at the specific or subspecific level. The northern (Irish) population of M. ios is believed to occur in the same geographical range as M. glutinosa but to live at greater depths. Myxine ios is compared with M. glulinosa L. and M. capensis Regan, the other two eastern Atlantic Myxine species; new data are given for these species, both of which are regarded as valid.