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Marine Gastrotricha of Little Cayman Island with the description of one new species and an initial assessment of meiofaunal diversity

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Abstract

Surveys of littoral and sublittoral sediments from diverse marine environments around Little Cayman Island (LCI) have produced the first records of gastrotrichs from one of the most remote West Indian islands in the Greater Antilles ecoregion of the Tropical Northwest Atlantic. Forty-six stations ranging from littoral to 40 m depth yielded 18 morphospecies from 10 genera (7 Macrodasyida, 3 Chaetonotida) representing six families of Gastrotricha. At least one species is new to science and is described here. Oregodasys caymanensis n. sp. is described from multiple stations around the island from 1.5 to 15 m depth. The new species belongs to a group of species with posterior cirri, but can be distinguished by the possession of six rod-like cephalic tentacles on the oral hood and the presence of pigmented y-cells. Nine previously described morphospecies from other Caribbean and global locations were present around LCI: Aspidiophorus cf. paramediterraneus, A. tentaculatus, Chaetonotus aff. apechochaetus, C. cf. atrox, C. cf. dispar (Chaetonotidae); Diplodasys rothei (Thaumastodermatidae); Macrodasys cf. ommatus and Urodasys viviparus (Macrodasyidae); and Paraturbanella pacifica (Turbanellidae). We also encountered further unidentified morphospecies of Chaetonotida from the genus Xenotrichula and from six genera of Macrodasyida (Diplodasys, Megadasys, Macrodasys, Oregodasys, Paraturbanella, Tetranchyroderma). In addition to new geographic records of Gastrotricha, we provide the first general survey of meiofauna from Little Cayman Island including new geographic records for several taxa.

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Acknowledgements

We thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive criticisms of the manuscript. We also express our gratitude to the staff at the Little Cayman Research Center (Central Caribbean Marine Institute) for providing accommodations and assistance with our collections. This research could not have been performed without the assistance of Dr. Birgen Rothe, who made valuable contributions to collections and identifications, and to Cheryl Thacker and Daniel Gouge for their help with SCUBA. The authors also thank the following taxonomic specialists who helped to identify various meiofaunal taxa: Dr. Ashleigh Smythe (Hamilton College, NY, USA), Dr. Jon Norenburg (Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA), Dr. Katharina Jörger (Zoologische Staatssammlung München, Germany), Dr. Sofia Pyataeva (M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University) and Dr. Michael Schrödl (Zoologische Staatssammlung München, Germany). Any misidentifications of taxa in this manuscript are the sole responsibility of the authors. Funding for this research comes from an award to R. Hochberg from the National Science Foundation (DEB 0918499).

Ethical standards

The authors obtained a collection permit from the Marine Conservation

Board of the Cayman Island Government on 17 Aug 2010. All collections comply with the collection permit.

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Massachusetts Lowell, One University Avenue, Lowell, MA, 01854, USA

    Rick Hochberg & Sarah Atherton

  2. Deutsches Zentrum für Marine Biodiversitätsforschung, Senckenberg am Meer Südstand 44, 26382, Wilhelmshaven, Germany

    Alexander Kieneke

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  1. Rick Hochberg
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  2. Sarah Atherton
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Correspondence to Rick Hochberg.

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Hochberg, R., Atherton, S. & Kieneke, A. Marine Gastrotricha of Little Cayman Island with the description of one new species and an initial assessment of meiofaunal diversity. Mar Biodiv 44, 89–113 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-013-0186-z

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