Revision and update of the checklist of copepods (Crustacea: Hexanauplia) of the Colombian Caribbean

Abstract

The aim of the study was to obtain a revised and updated checklist of the species of copepods of the Colombian Caribbean. Methods for updating included a critical compilation of records in published and unpublished articles, and our own results of a study of zooplankton in a project on bioinvasions of coastal waters, conducted in 2010. Twenty taxa reported solely in undergraduate thesis need taxonomical comprobation and were excluded from the inventory. As a baseline, we used the most recent inventory published by Medellín-Mora and Navas (2010). Ten species recorded in the already mentioned project are new records. Thirteen species reported by other researchers in publications after 2010 increased the species list. The inventory totals 214 species of copepods (158 Calanoida, 38 Cyclopoida, 15 Harpacticoida, 2 Mormonilloida and 1 Monstrilloida). Most species are planktonic (201), while only a few are benthic (10) or epibenthic (3). Nomenclature of the taxa was revised and updated as well. The highest copepod diversity corresponds to the ecoregion Colombian Oceanic (127 species), followed by Tayrona (94), Magdalena (82) and Morrosquillo (78). The lowest number corresponds to San Andrés and Providencia Archipelago (49). The limited information existing about benthic and parasitic copepods warrants an increment on the study these groups. Most of them belong to orders Harpacticoida and Siphonostomatoida.