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Rationale and Scope Macroinvertebrate Checklists Camp et al. 1998
separate investigations, we can help to ensure that the
same animal will be consistently identified by the same
name and that the name selected will be based upon
the most accurate information. Problems posed by reclassifications
or by the appearances of “new”(undescribed,
recently described, or extralimital) species
can be mitigated by periodic and timely updates of the
guides.
A first step in producing identification guides is to
prepare authoritative, up-to-date checklists of all
species of the major marine benthic macroinvertebrate
groups known from shallow Florida waters. Such
checklists will serve two purposes—they will provide
ecologists with up-to-date names for most of Florida’s
benthic macroinvertebrates, and they will provide a
basis from which to plan the scope and production of
illustrated guides to the marine fauna of Florida. The
purpose of this paper is to initiate that first step. An
electronic network (perhaps via an Internet website)
should also be established to allow easy access to the
checklists and to inform Florida ecologists of nomenclatural
changes to the checklists and of associated
identification literature.
The checklists of mollusks, polychaetous annelids,
malacostracan crustaceans, and echinoderms that follow
list all species of these groups known to occur in
Florida’s estuarine and coastal marine waters offshore
to depths of approximately 37 meters (20 fathoms or
120 feet).The 37-m depth was selected as a deep-water
boundary because this depth has been shown to be an
approximate point of transition between the faunas of
shallow coastal zones and those of intermediate and
deeper shelf zones, at least off western Florida (Lyons,
1980; Lyons and Camp, 1983). Although such points of
transition can differ between animal groups and, certainly,
among locations in a region as large and environmentally
diverse as Florida, we have found that
many of the species that demonstrate fidelity to particular
depth zones off western Florida maintain that
fidelity in other areas of the state. As a caveat to that
generalization, it is important to recognize the phenomenon
of latitudinal submergence—species that
inhabit very shallow waters in the Florida Keys and
along southeastern Florida may be found only in deeper
waters farther north. However, the converse is seldom
true—benthic macroinvertebrate species that customarily
inhabit Florida’s intermediate and deeper
shelf communities are rarely found in inshore waters
of Florida (although a few occur in lesser depths off
New England).
The checklists should not be considered a complete
listing of all species that live in Florida waters, because
undescribed species in museum collections are
usually not included, and many species currently
known only from nearby states and countries (e.g., Bahama
Islands, Cuba) could also occur in Florida waters.
These lists are works in progress, and they should be
updated regularly. Compilation of this version ended
in November 1997.
Individual accounts of methods and acknowledgments
related to the creation of each list are presented
below, and the list for each group is accompanied by
a separate compilation of pertinent literature.The references
cited in those compilations include all literature
sources consulted during the preparation of that
list, as well as some other references useful in classifying
and identifying organisms of that group. Many
other references have also been included to guide the
user to pertinent information on the communities in
which the organisms live and the forces that may impact
those organisms and their communities; however,
the lists of references do not include all papers
that have treated Florida’s benthic invertebrates. The
sound management of Florida’s marine resources will
depend not only upon the consistent and accurate
identification of organisms but also upon an understanding
and appreciation of the composition and dynamics
of the communities in which these organisms
live.
Acknowledgments
We thank the following people, who contributed their
time and effort to improving the quality of this checklist.
Staff of the library at Florida Marine Research Institute
(FMRI) (Jan Boyett, Bob Brock, Felice Drouin, and
James Thomas) acquired and provided copies of many
of the publications we consulted. James F. Quinn, Jr.,
Llyn French, and Judy Leiby, of the FMRI Publications
Production Office, edited our copy, assembled our several
word-processing files into the finished document,
and assisted in improving this work. Funding was provided
by Florida Department of Environmental Protection,
Division of Water Facilities, Bureau of Water Resources
Protection from FY 1997 U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency 604(b) grant monies administered
by Mary Paulic. We are grateful to the department for
giving us the opportunity to assemble these lists and
associated references. Finally, we are especially grateful
to Paul Humann, marine life author and photographer,
for allowing several of his excellent photographs
to grace the cover of this document.
Literature Cited
CARNEY, R. S. 1996. On the adequacy and improvement
of marine benthic pre-impact surveys. Pp. 295-315 in
Schmitt, R. J., and C.W. Osenberg (eds.), Detecting Eco-
2 FMRI Technical Report TR-3