Contribution to the knowledge of the decapods from Cape Verde Islands

Crustacean decapods constitute one of the dominant groups in megabenthic communities of the Atlantic continental shelf and slopes and, due to its commercial importance, have historically been one of most studied benthic taxa in Northwest African coasts. Nevertheless, despite that biodiversity and composition of decapods from the continental region have been quite well studied, the fauna from CaboVerde Islands is currently unknown (Muñoz et al., 2012; García-Isarch and Muñoz, 2015; García-Isarch et al., in edition) In June 2011, 25 bottom-trawling stations were deployed between 30 and 900 m depth in Cabo Verde waters on board the Norwegian R/V Dr. Fridjof Nansen during the oceanographic ecosystemic survey carried out in the framework of the CCLME-FAO project (Krakstad et al., 2011). ECOAFRIK Spanish team participated in this survey, being responsible of the benthic sampling and posterior study. In this communication we show the results for the taxonomic study of the decapod colletion gathered in Cabo Verde waters, offering a first insight into its biodiversity and assemblages. We have identified a total of 39 decapod species belonging to 22 families. Brachyura was the richest group, with 13 species, followed by Caridea (11 species), Dendrobranchiata and Anomura (both with 6 species), and Polychelida (3 species). The most diverse families were Pandalidae (4 species), canthephyridae (4 species), Polychelidae and Calappidae (3 species). Among these 39 species eight, Acanthephyra acanthitelsonis Bate, 1888, Acanthephyra eximia Smith, 1884, Acanthephyra kingsleyi Bate, 1888, Aristaeopsis edwarsiana (Johnson, 1867), Pagurus mbizi (Forest 1955), Plesionika antigai Zariquiey Álvarez, 1955, Benthonectes filipes Smith, 1885 and Pilumnus hirsutus De Haan, 1935, are reported for the first time in Cabo Verde Islands. For the last 2 species, their presence in Cabo Verde waters also increases their geographical distribution. We wish also remark that, despite the limited stations number as consequence of the difficulties for trawling over the islands seabed, the multivariate analysis show a separation of stations in 5 groups related to depth. The good fits of the MDS (2D stress = 0.02) and ANOSIM test (Global R = 0.724, ρ < 0.01) prove the existence of significant differences in the structure and composition of shallowest and deepest assemblages.EAF-NANSEN Mentoring Program (FAO); MAVA (Contract 12/87 AO C4/2012