literature review of the Polychaeta of the Caribbean Sea

Abstract

A list of all known polychaete species reported in the primary literature is presented for the Caribbean Sea. The most spe-cies-rich polychaete faunas are those of Cuba in the North Caribbean ecoregion and Trinidad-Tobago and Colombia in theSouth Caribbean ecoregion while the ecoregion with the greatest number of species is the Greater Antilles. While part ofthe explanation for these higher diversity areas may be due to collection effort, these areas may also be higher in speciesnumber as a result of being ecotones between the Gulf of Mexico in the north and the northern South American region tothe south. The most species-rich families are the Syllidae, Eunicidae, Nereididae, Polynoidae, Sabellidae, Serpulidae, Ter-ebellidae, and Spionidae. A brief discussion of the history of polychaete research identified many of the more importantworkers in the characterization of the polychaete fauna of the region. An analysis of the species-record accumulation curvefor polychaetes indicated that this fauna has not yet been fully characterized. One portion of the polychaete fauna identified as being especially poorly known is that from the deep-water areas of the Caribbean.

New records of marine planktonic invertebrates from the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica

“…Considering polychaetes, Miloslavich et al (2010 ; Table S5) showed Costa Rica as having the lowest richness on the South-Western Caribbean ecoregion (the other four are: Western Caribbean, Southern Caribbean, Greater Antilles and Eastern Caribbean), the ecoregion with the lowest polychaete richness. This trend was also seen by Dean (2009Dean ( , 2012Dean ( , 2017 who argued that this discrepancy is due to the low sampling effort especially along the Caribbean coasts of Nicaragua and Costa Rica.…”

“…We also report seven families (six as larval stages and the remaining as adults or epitokes), five genera and six species of polychaetes as new records for the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. Of those polychaete families found, only adult stages of Amphinomidae, Sabellidae, Spionidae and Syllidae were reported previously for this location (Dean 2009(Dean , 2012(Dean , 2017 (Table 2). Unidentified larvae of echinoids and ophiurids, as well as unidentified larvae of mollusks Remarks: Larval specimens have strongyles-like plates, characteristic of the hoplitomella larvae of the astrophoridean sponge Thoosa (Maldonado & Berquist, 2002;Bautista-Guerrero, Carballo, & Maldonado, 2010).…”

“…Remarks: The specimens are in the metatrochophore stage with segment 1 fused to segment 2 and showing flat ventral tentacular cirri. Only Sige belizensis Eibye-Jacobsen, 1992 for Belize, Sige parvicirrus (Perkins, 1984) for Florida, and Sige macroceros orientalis Imajima and Hartman, 1964 have been reported for the Greater Caribbean (Salazar-Vallejo, 1996;Perkins, 1998;Dean, 2012).…”

“…Remarks: Eversible pharynx, armed without a complete trepan or a median dorsal tooth. Eight species are recorded for the Greater Caribbean (Góngora-Garza, 2009;Dean, 2012). Odontosyllis luminosa San Martín, 1990 and Odontosyllis twincayensis Russell, 1989 from Belize, are the closest to the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica (Dean, 2009).…”

Interstitial annelids from the Caribbean Coast of Colombia

“…Previously reported in the Western Central Atlantic Ocean: USA (Florida) (Von Soosten, Schmidt, & Westheide, 1998), Bahamas (Hartmann-Schröder, 1958 and Cuba (Dean, 2012). Northeastern Atlantic Ocean: France (Arcachon) (Von Soosten et al, 1998), andBritish Isles (San Martín &Worsfold, 2015).…”