Polychaetes and Echiurans

Abstract

A total of 724 species of polychaetes have been reported in the primary literature from Central America with 583 from the Pacific coast and 208 from the Caribbean coast, of these 67 species were reported to occur along both coasts. A total of 317 species of polychaetes have been reported from Costa Rica, 317 from the Pacific coast, and 4 of these also from the Caribbean. There has been only a single record of a member of the problematic phylum Echiura from Central America, that from the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The number of species of polychaetes and echiurans from Central America is lower than expected in relation to surveys from other geographic regions and this is most probably a function of lower sampling effort.