Benavides-Serrato, Milena

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    Taxonomic list of the shallow water echinoderms of Puerto Rico with new information for La Parguera
    (2006) Benavides-Serrato, Milena; Alfaro, Mónica; College of Arts and Sciences - Sciences; Borges, Sonia; Weil, Ernesto; Department of Biology; Riquelme, Ernesto
    This work presents the most complete an updated taxonomic list of the shallow water (0-100m) Echinodermata (Crinoidea, Asteroidea, Ophiuroidea, Echinoidea, and Holothuroidea) from Puerto Rico. The species list is a review based on the collection of echinoderms of the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) at Washington, D.C., the Marine Invertebrate collection of the Department of Marine Science (MSC), University of Puerto Ric o, Mayaguez Campus, and from simultaneous colections in 8 coral reefs stations (Buoy, Weimberg, San Cristobal, Enrique, Media Luna, Turrumote, Pelotas and Romero) and 6 sampling stations in sea grass beds (Caballo Blanco, Enrique, San Cristobal, Laurel, La Corona del Medio de Laurel and Media Luna) at La Parguera, Puerto Rico , during 2005 and 2006. A total of 108 species were revised (6 crinoids, 14 asteroids, 44 ophiuroids, 15 echinoids, and 29 holothuroids) representing 5 classes, 15 orders, 1 suborder, 33 families, 3 subfamilies and 68 genera. Nine species, Davidaster discoidea, Poraniella echinulata, Ophioderma squamosissimum, Ophioderma phoenium, Ophionephthys limicola, Plagiobrissus grandis, Actinopyga agassizi, Holothuria (Halodeima) floridana, and Synaptula hydriformis are new records for Puerto Rico. The exact locations of 52 species are stated for the first time. Of the species found (108), 74 were preserved at the MSC, 61 at the NMNH, while 39 were recently collected from the coral reefs and sea gr ass beds at La Parguera. In the sea grass beds, the total mean abundance of echinoderm species was 18.46 ind.m-2; ophiuroids and echinoids had the highest abundance (0.31-3.99 ind.m-2 and 0.22- 5.89 ind.m-2, respectively). The spatial patterns of total echinoderm abundance in these communities were characterized by a significant difference between sampling stations, being San Cristobal the main station introducing these differences .