Sistemática e Evolução - Pôsteres - 29/11/2023 - 15:30 h às 16:30 h

Trindade (20°30’S–29°20’W) and Martim Vaz (20°30’S–28°51’W) (TMV) constitute the most distant set of islands from the Brazilian coast, located away from at about 1,200 km and about 4200 km from the nearest African shore. The archipelago, formed by volcanic eruptions around 3–3.5 million years ago, is the emerged portion of a volcanic chain east-west oriented in direction off the coast of Espírito Santo. TMV is home to a species rich and precious fauna of benthic invertebrates. The immense majority of the collections from TMV was obtained from 2012 to 2022 during 286 daytime SCUBA diving, between 5–30 m, and numerous snorkeling dives and intertidal collecting. The amphipod material was mainly associated with sand, clumps of coralline algae and porous coral rocks, sponges, bryozoans and algae. Additional samples were obtained from artificial reef substrates placed for 12–15 months in depths of 10–20 m off Trindade Island. All specimens were preserved in 75% ethanol; some were photographed prior to preservation. The specimens are in the collections of the Museum of Zoology, University of São Paulo. A total of 1837 specimens distributed in 11 families were collected. The most abundant families were Maeridae (972 individuals), followed by Ampithoidae (638 specimens), together representing about 80% of the amphipod fauna. The knowledge about the amphipod fauna of TMV is essentially restricted to 3 sparse works (1951, 2017 and 2021) which together account for only 10 species in 4 families. Paradoxically, despite the influence of the South Equatorial Current enabling the exchange of species from the western shores of Africa, our preliminary results indicate that the TMV fauna has more similarities in its constitution from the western Atlantic.