Inventory of ascidians (Tunicata, Ascidiacea) from the National Park La Restinga, Isla Margarita, Venezuela

Abstract

Although ascidians form a conspicuous part of sessile assemblages in the Caribbean, no specialized inventories have been developed in Venezuela, except for a list of 15 species reported from Margarita Island (1984). Here we present the results of a taxonomic workshop held in the Universidad de Oriente, Boca del Rio, Margarita Island during April 20-25 of 2009, sponsored by the NaGISA-Caribbean Sea program. La Restinga National park was surveyed and we found 29 species belonging to 19 genera and 10 families. The most abundant colonial species were Clavelina oblonga, Aplidium accarense, Polyclinum constellatum, Distaplia bermudensis, Symplegma rubra, S. brakenhielmi, Botrylloides nigrum and Ecteinascidia turbinata. Among the solitary ascidians Phallusia nigra, Ascidia curvata, Microcosmus exasperatus, Styela canopus, Styela sp.1 and Styela sp. 2 were the most abundant. The ascidian diversity in this lagoon is one of the highest for similar habitats in the Caribbean and seven species are new registers for Venezuela (Ascidia curvata, Ecteinascidia styeloides, Aplidium accarense, Distaplia stylifera, Trididemnum orbiculatum, Symplegma rubra, and S. brakenhielmi). One point of concern for the conservation of la Restinga National Park is the presence of possible introduced species, and some management procedures are suggested.

Is otolith microchemistry (Sr: Ca and Ba:Ca ratios) useful to identify Mugil curema populations in the southeastern Caribbean Sea?

“…Baumar et al (2000Baumar et al ( , 2003 also reported that M. curema uses salt water-lagoons not only as nurseries but also as hatching areas. These environments distinguish for having high salinity concentrations (36-45 g/L) (Rocha et al, 2010). This concurs with high Sr:Ca ratios found in fish otoliths for both lagoons studied.…”

Hitch-hikers of the sea: concurrent morphological and molecular identification of Symplegma brakenhielmi (Tunicata: Ascidiacea) in the western Mediterranean Sea

“…Later, considering the nomenclature rules (ICZN, 1985), Monniot & Monniot 1997 named it as Symplegma brakenhielmi (Michaelsen, 1904). This species has a pantropical distribution, having been recorded in Mexico (Michaelsen, 1904), the Western Indian Ocean (Kott, 1964(Kott, , 1985Michaelsen, 1904), Melanesia (Kott, 1981;Tokioka, 1961Tokioka, , 1967, Indonesia (Sluiter, 1904), Thailand (Tokioka, 1967), Hong Kong (Kott & Goodbody, 1980), South Korea (Rho & Park, 1998), China (Tokioka, 1967), Sri Lanka (Herdman, 1906), Madagascar (Plante & Vasseur, 1966;Vasseur, 1967), the Arabian Gulf (Monniot & Monniot 1997), California (Lambert & Lambert, 1998), Hawaii (Abbott et al, 1997), Brazil (Rocha, 1991;Rodrigues & Rocha, 1993;Rocha & Barros de Faria, 2005;Ro-cha & Kremer, 2005) and Venezuela (Rocha et al 2010). Based on current knowledge, the recorded presence of this species in the Mediterranean Sea has been limited to the eastern basin, along the coasts of Turkey, Israel and Lebanon.…”

Checklist of ascidians (Chordata, Tunicata) from the southern Gulf of Mexico

“…United States (Van Name 1921, 1945; Plough 1978), Bermudas (Herdman 1882; Verril 1900; Berrill 1932, 1935; Monniot 1972; Van Name 1902, 1945), Cuba (Hernández-Zanuy and Carballo 2001), Jamaica (Goodbody 2003; Goodbody and Cole 2006), Turks and Caicos Islands (Millar 1962), Mexico, Yucatán Peninsula (Carballo 2000), Belize (Goodbody 2000), Panama (Collin et al 2005), Curacao (Goodbody 1984), Venezuela (Goodbody 1984a; Rocha et al 2010; Carballo-Pérez and Díaz 2011), Guadeloupe (Monniot 1983a), Martinique (Monniot 2018a), Guyana (Millar 1978), French Guiana (Monniot 2016), Senegal (Pérès 1949, 1951; Lafargue and Wahl 1990; Monniot and Monniot 1994), Sierra Leone (Millar 1956), Gibraltar (Naranjo and García-Gómez 1994), Baleares Islands (Ramos et al 1993; Spain (Casso et al 2018), France (Harant 1927, Harant and Vernières 1933, Thessalou-Legaki et al 2012), Tunisia (Pérès 1954), and Egypt (Harant 1927).…”