Zooplankton abundance and biovolume size-spectra in the western tropical Atlantic - From the shelf towards complex oceanic current systems.

Mesozooplankton plays a pivotal role within marine food webs. However, there is a paucity of studies examining the size-spectra and trophic efficiency of these communities in tropical neritic and oceanic waters. Here, normalised biovolume (NBSS) and normalised numbers size-spectra (NNSS) were fitted on zooplankton data from the southwestern tropical Atlantic.

The first zoeal stage of the yellow land crab Johngarthia lagostoma (Milne Edwards, 1837) (Decapoda: Brachyura: Gecarcinidae).

The objective of this paper is to describe and illustrate the first zoeal stage of the largest land crab of the Tropical Atlantic, Johngarthia lagostoma (Milne Edwards, 1837) (Brachyura: Gecarcinidae). A larval description of J. lagostoma was previously not available.

First record of Naushonia sp. (Decapoda: Laomediidae) larva from the Equatorial Atlantic.

The first zoeal-stage larva of a possibly new species of mud shrimp Naushonia (Decapoda: Gebiidea: Laomediidae) was described from plankton samples taken off the Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, being the first occurrence at the oceanic islands of the Equatorial Atlantic. Five zoea I larvae were obtained and dissected for observation of mouthparts. This zoea I of Naushonia sp.

New records of the larval forms and (Crustacea: Decapoda) from the western tropical Atlantic.

The current biogeographic and taxonomic knowledge on decapod larvae in tropical oceans is still very incomplete, in spite of their huge ecological and socio-economic importance. The present study reports two new records for decapod larval forms in pelagic environments off oceanic islands in the western tropical Atlantic, and provides detailed diagnoses and images of these larvae. Samples were taken from July 2010 to November 2014 using neuston, bongo and WP-2 nets at three localities: St.