“…The similarity matrix was calculated using the Sørensen index, and the clusters generated by the hierarchical agglomerative method using the UPGMA amalgamation strategy. The seven areas included in this study were: (1) Ceará -CE (present study; Araújo et al, 2000;Cunha et al, 2007Cunha et al, , 2008Freitas et al, 2009); (2) Maranhão -MA (Rocha & Rosa, 2001;Nunes et al, 2011a, b); (3) Risca do Zumbi RN -ZU (Feitoza, 2001); (4) Paraíba -PB (Rocha et al, 1998;Souza et al, 2007;Honório et al, 2010); (5) Abrolhos -AB (Moura et al, 2006); (6) Atol das Rocas (Rocas Atoll) -AR (Rosa & Moura, 1997;Floeter et al, 2008); and (7) Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo (St Paul's Rocks) -SPSP (Lubbock & Edwards, 1981;Feitoza et al, 2003).…”