Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T18:34:05.523Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

New data on the heterobranch gastropods (‘opisthobranchs’) for the Bahamas (tropical western Atlantic Ocean)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 March 2014

Manuel António E. Malaquias
Manuel António E. Malaquias*
Affiliation:
Phylogenetic Systematics and Evolution Research Group, Natural History Collections, University Museum of Bergen, University of Bergen, PB 7800, 5020-Bergen, Norway
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: M.A.E. Malaquias, Phylogenetic Systematics and Evolution Research Group, Natural History Collections, University Museum of Bergen, University of Bergen, PB 7800, 5020-Bergen, Norway email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

The Bahamian archipelago is one of the richest regions in the Caribbean province and its importance as a hot spot of biodiversity and potential centre of origination of new species in the tropical western Atlantic has been suggested. In this paper I report on the sea slugs collected during a field trip to Eleuthera Island, the Bahamas. Animals were collected from the intertidal down to five metres deep by direct sampling. Nineteen species of opisthobranchs were found including two new records to the Bahamas (Berghia stephanieae and Gastropteron vespertilium) and three putatively new species of Haminoea. Colour variation was detected on adults of the species Chelidonura hirundinina and Bulla occidentalis, the latter suggesting isolation across a reduced geographical scale. Ontogenetic variation in Philinopsis cf. pusa was found and is here documented. The uniqueness of the Bahamian biodiversity is highlighted.

Keywords

Molluscabiodiversitysea slugsCaribbean provincebiogeography
Type
Research Article
Information
Marine Biodiversity Records , Volume 7 , 2014 , e27
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Avise, J.C. (2000) Phylogeography: the history and formation of species. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briggs, J.C. (1974) Marine zoogeography. New York: McGraw-Hill Co. Google Scholar
Burn, R. and Thompson, T.E. (1998) Order Cephalaspidea. In Beesley, P.L., Ross, G.J.B. and Wells, A. (eds) Mollusca: the Southern synthesis, Volume 5, Part B, fauna of Australia. Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing, pp. 943–959.Google Scholar
Caballer, M., Ortea, J. and Moro, L. (2009) Descripción de una nueva especie de Stiliger Ehrenberg, 1831 (Mollusca: Sacoglossa) de las islas Canarias. Vieraea 37, 85–90.Google Scholar
Caballer, M. and Ortea, J. (2011) Description of a new species of Hypselodoris (Gastropoda: Nudibranchia: Chromodorididae) from Venezuela. Revista de la Academia Canaria de Ciencias 23, 93–106.Google Scholar
Carmona, L. (2013) Sistemática de los moluscos nudibranquios de la familia Aeolidiidae (Gastropoda, Heterobranchia). PhD thesis. University of Cádiz, Spain, 264 pp.Google Scholar
Colin, P.L. (1975) Neon gobies. Neptune City, NJ: T.F.H. Publications, Inc. Google Scholar
Colin, P.L. (1995) Surface currents in Exuma Sound, Bahamas and adjacent areas with reference to potential larval transport. Bulletin of Marine Science 56, 48–57.Google Scholar
Gosliner, T.M. and Armes, P.T. (1984) A new species of Gastropteron from Florida (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia). Veliger 27, 54–64.Google Scholar
Marcus, Er. and Marcus, Ev. (1970) Opisthobranchs from Curaçao and faunistically related regions. Studies on the Fauna of Curaçao and other Caribbean Islands 33, 1–129.Google Scholar
Mollo, E., Muniain, C. and Ortea, J. (1994) Captura de Stiliger cricetus Marcus & Marcus, 1970 (Mollusca: Opisthobranchia: Sacoglossa) en la Bahía de Mochima (Venezuela). Adscripción al género Ercolania Trinchese, 1872. Avicennia 1, 125–130.Google Scholar
Ornelas-Gatdula, E., DuPont, A., and Valdés, Á. (2011) The tail tells the tale: taxonomy and biogeography of some Atlantic Chelidonura (Gastropoda: Cephalaspidea: Aglajidae) inferred from nuclear and mitochondrial gene data. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 163, 1077–1095.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ornelas-Gatdula, E. and Valdés, Á. (2012) Two cryptic and sympatric species of Philinopsis (Cephalaspidea: Aglajidae) in the Bahamas distinguished using molecular and anatomical data. Journal of Molluscan Studies 78, 313–320.Google Scholar
Ortea, J., Espinosa, J., Moro, L., Caballer, M. and Bacallado, J.J. (2012) Notas en Opisthobranchia (Mollusca, Gastropoda) 5: sobre el uso de la concha interna como caracter sistemático de primer orden en el inventario de las especies Atlánticas de la familia Aglajidae (Mollusca: Cephalaspidea). Revistade la Academia Canaria de Ciencias 24, 183–195.Google Scholar
Ortigosa, D. and Valdés, Á. (2012) A new species of Felimare (formerly Mexichromis) (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia: Chromodorididae) from the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Nautilus 126, 98–104.Google Scholar
Paulay, G. (1997) Diversity and distribution of reef organisms. In Birkeland, C. (ed) Life and death of coral reefs. New York: Chapman and Hall, pp. 298–353.Google Scholar
Petuch, E.J. (2013) Biogeography and biodiversity of western Atlantic mollusks. Boca raton, FL: CRC Press.Google Scholar
Pola, M., Cervera, J.L. and Gosliner, T.M. (2008) Description of the first Roboastra species (Nudibranchia, Polyceridae, Nembrothinae) from the western Atlantic. Bulletin of Marine Science 83, 391–399.Google Scholar
Redfern, C. (2001) Bahamian seashells: a thousand species from Abaco, Bahamas. Boca Raton, FL: Bahamianseashells.com, Inc., 280 pp.Google Scholar
Redfern, C. (2013) Bahamian seashells: 1161 species from Abaco, Bahamas. Boca Raton, FL: Bahamianseashells.com, Inc., 501 pp.Google Scholar
Taylor, M.S. and Hellberg, M.E. (2003) Genetic evidence for local retention of pelagic larvae in a Caribbean reef fish. Science 299, 107–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, M.S. and Hellberg, M.E. (2005) Marine radiations at small geographic scales: speciation in Neotropical reef gobies (Elacatinus). Evolution 59, 374–385.Google Scholar
Valdés, Á. (2005) A new species of Aeolidiella Bergh, 1867 (Mollusca: Nudibranchia: Aeolidiidae) from Florida Keys, USA. Veliger 43, 218–223.Google Scholar
Valdés, A., Hamann, J., Behrens, D.W. and DuPont, A. (2006) Caribbean sea slugs: A field guide to the opisthobranch mollusks from the tropical northwestern Atlantic. Washington, DC: Sea Challengers Natural History Books.Google Scholar
Vermeij, G.J. (1996) Marine biological diversity: muricid gastropods as a case study. In Jablonski, D., Erwin, D.H. and Lipps, J.H. (eds) Evolutionary paleobiology. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, pp. 355–375.Google Scholar
WoRMS (2014) World Register of Marine Species. Editorial board. Available at: http://www.marinespecies.org (accessed 14 February 2014).Google Scholar