Cyclaspis sp.

Material Examined: CNCR­20400; number of specimens: 2; CV station; collection date: 01/08/98.

Distribution: The genus Cyclaspis has been reported from southern Africa (Day, 1978), the Gulf of Mexico (Santos & Simon, 1980; Omholt & Heard, 1982; Modlin & Dardeau, 1987; Donath­Hernandez, 1988a); the Caribbean Sea (Donath­Hernandez, 1988a; Ortiz & Lalana, 1989; Markham et al., 1990), French Guiana, from southern Brazil to Argentina (Roccatagliata, 1986, 1989); the Gulf of California (Donath­Hernandez, 1988?b); Indonesia (Soemodinoto et al. 1995); northern Australia (Bacescu, 1990) and the east coast of India (Radhadevi & Kurian, 1990).

Range extension: For the Gulf of Mexico, some species of the genus Cyclaspis have been reported from South Florida estuaries (Santos & Simon, 1980), the northeastern shelf (Omholt & Heard, 1982), Perdido Key, Florida (Rakocinski, et al., 1993; 1996) and the Mobile Bay estuarine system, Alabama (Modlin & Dardeau, 1987). The record of this genus at CV inlet, Veracruz State, extends its geographic distribution from Quintana Roo and the Mexican Caribbean (Markham et al., 1990) into the southwestern Gulf of Mexico.

Remarks: The genus Cyclaspis is widely distributed. It is a macrozoobenthic, sometimes planktonic (especially males), sand bottom and seagrass inhabitant, as well as a deep­water epibenthic ­ suprabenthic component, and is also found in the continental shelf ­ slope assemblage (Cartes & Sorbe, 1997). In addition, some species of Cyclaspis encountered within estuaries are euryhaline marine r­strategists and use the ecosystem only when the environmental conditions are favorable (Modlin & Dardeau, 1987). This genus not identifiable to species because it appear to be new species.

The salinity and temperature ranges measured at the site were 19 to 27 %o and 28 to 29 °C respectively.