Diversity of Terebellidae, Trichobranchidae and Sabellidae (Annelida, Polychaeta) along the Brazilian Coast, between the States of São Paulo and Paraíba

Abstract

The present project aims a taxonomic survey of the species of polychaetes belonging to Terebellidae, Trichobranchidae and Sabellidae families collected along the Brazilian coast between the states of Sao Paulo and Paraíba, including identification keys and detailed descriptions with illustrative tables. Although they are abundant and conspicuous animals in different environments which they live, there are few taxonomic studies about these groups, particularly regarding the northeastern coast. For this purpose, will be used the material collected by Lapol team in Sao Paulo, Paraiba and Pernambuco, as well as the material from new projects from other laboratories previously performed in the range from São Paulo to Bahia, collected in hard and soft substrates, intertidal zone to depths of the continental shelf and slope. The samples collected in Paraiba and Pernambuco are obtained from scrapings with trowels, of the small samples of sponges, sea squirts, zoanthids, rhodolith of coralline algae and turf algae; the material is screened live under a stereomicroscope, the animals are anesthetized in a solution of menthol, fixed in formalin 4% and subsequently immersed in water and transferred to solution of ethanol 70%. The material of the other projects will be received separately by family preserved in ethanol 70%. The identification will be made only by morphological characters, with updated bibliography and through stereoscopic microscopes, optical and scanning electron microscope, the latter depending on the amount and state of preservation of the material. This project is expected to be an important contribution to better knowledge of the fauna of polychaetes, and fauna of marine invertebrates as a whole in a wide range of Brazilian coast. (AU)