Crustacea of the Cayman Islands, British West Indies II. Heteromysis (Olivemysis) ebanksae, a new species (Mysida: Mysidae) from Little Cayman and Grand Cayman Islands

2008 ◽  
Vol 121 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-149
Author(s):  
W. Wayne Price ◽  
Richard W. Heard
Author(s):  
Daniel Martin ◽  
João Gil ◽  
Cynthia Abgarian ◽  
Essi Evans ◽  
Everett M. Turner ◽  
...  

We have found a new species of Autolytinae (Annelida, Syllidae),Proceraea janetae, feeding on the scleractinian coralMontastrea cavernosain coral reefs surrounding the Grand Cayman Island (Cayman Islands, British West Indies). The new species has a characteristic combination of transversal brown markings on the segmental margins and diffuse white mid-dorsal transverse bars, together with a diffuse white mid-dorsal longitudinal band. Antennae are brown, tentacular cirri are pale, the first dorsal cirri are white with pale base; the second dorsal cirri are pale, and the remaining dorsal cirri are alternately long, bright yellow-orange with brownish tips and short, entirely brown. The trepan has 18 tricuspid teeth in one ring. There are 9 teeth with all cuspids equally long and 9 with a longer median cuspid, arranged in an alternating pattern. We describe and illustrate the feeding behaviour of the new species, which appears to be closer to parasitism rather than to specialized predation.Proceraea janetaesp. nov. is the second polychaete, and the first syllid, known to feed on scleractinian corals.


1991 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 382-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Jones

Terrestrial oncoids, up to 4.3 mm long, are common in sinkholes that penetrate the dolostones of the Oligocene–Miocene Bluff Formation on Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac. The vaguely laminated terrestrial oncoids, which generally lack a nucleus, are formed of detrital material (micrite, clays, dolomite), calcified filaments and spores, and insect fragments. The abundant, diverse assay of microorganisms includes six different types of filaments and five different types of spores, which can be attributed to fungi, algae, and (or) cyanobacteria. Thin mats of mucus are commonly associated with the microorganisms. The microorganisms contribute to the formation of the terrestrial oncoids by (i) calcification of the filaments and spores, (ii) trapping and binding detrital material, and (iii) binding with their mucus detrital material to the surface of the oncoids.Identification of terrestrial oncoids relies on (i) the recognition of a microbial assemblage, (ii) the demonstration that the microorganisms played an active role in the their formation, and (iii) evidence that they formed in a terrestrial setting. If the microorganisms cannot be recognized because of diagenetic changes, identification must rely on the overall texture of the rock and its stratigraphic setting. Recognition of terrestrial oncoids is important because it provides additional evidence that a succession has been subaerially exposed. Terrestrial oncoids also indicate that the strata in which they occur are close to an unconformity.


Zootaxa ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 2812 (1) ◽  
pp. 28 ◽  
Author(s):  
HARRY A. MEYER

Terrestrial tardigrades were collected from moss, lichen and leaf litter from Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands, West Indies. Six species were found. Milnesium tardigradum Doyère, 1840, Minibiotus intermedius (Plate, 1889), Paramacrobiotus areolatus (Murray, 1907) and P. richtersi (Murray, 1911) have been reported previously from other islands in the Caribbean Sea. Two species on Grand Cayman were new to science. Doryphoribius tessellatus sp. n. belongs to the ‘eveli- nae-group’, with two macroplacoids and cuticular gibbosities. In having two pairs of posterior gibbosities and cuticular depressions forming a reticular design, it is most similar to Doryphoribius quadrituberculatus Kaczmarek & Michalczyk, 2004 from Costa Rica. It differs from D. quadrituberculatus in its gibbosity sequence (III:4:2:2), the number of teeth, size of macroplacoids and details of the reticular design on the dorsal cuticle. Macrobiotus caymanensis sp. n. belongs to the ‘polyopus-group’ of species. It differs from other species of the group in having a shorter buccal tube, a more posterior stylet support insertion point and fewer, larger egg processes.


1995 ◽  
Vol 52 (S1) ◽  
pp. 98-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin M. Overstreet ◽  
Richard W. Heard

Megalophallus reamesi n.sp. infected the clapper rail, ruddy turnstone, black-bellied plover, and the isopod Ligia baudiniana. This precociously developed digenean occurred in the mid-Florida Keys, Florida, and in Pine Cay, Turks and Caicos, British West Indies, but not in numerous other examined localities from New York to Texas. It is most similar in body size (1.0–1.6 vs 1.0–1.1 mm) and structure of its copulatory organ to M. diodontis Siddiqi and Cable, 1960, but its copulatory organ has 23–39 micropapillae rather than 12–19, the species has rudimentary intestinal ceca rather than short fully developed ones, and an isopod rather than a portunid crab serves as the second intermediate host. The encysted metacercaria, occurring in the hemocoel of the isopod, was typically encapsulated with host connective tissue incorporating several host chromatophores.


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