Information about the taxonomy and ecology of polychaetes from Caribbean Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems (MCEs) is limited. To fill this information void, substrata samples were collected using technical diving from several mesophotic localities (between 40–91 m depth) in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands between 2007 and 2012. A total of 76 genera, distributed among 34 families, were identified. All genera have previously been reported from the Caribbean and from other marine ecoregions. Syllidae was the best-represented family across all sampled localities with the largest number of genera (15) and the highest number of individuals (5,755, or 80.85% of the total records). Haplosyllis was the most abundant and most frequently sampled genus in the sampled sites. Bajo de Sico, a mesophotic coral ecosystem (MCE) off the west coast of Puerto Rico, was the location with the highest abundances (1,183 worms), while the MCE of the extended insular shelf off La Parguera Natural Reserve on the southwest coast of Puerto Rico had the highest number of genera (59), perhaps related to higher sampling effort and its greater spatial heterogeneity. In our qualitative samples, the abundances and number of Polychaeta genera tended to be higher in the shallower sites (<60 m) than in the deeper ones (>60 m).

中文翻译：

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与波多黎各和美属维尔京群岛中生珊瑚生态系统相关的多毛类动物（Annelida、Polychaeta）

关于加勒比中光珊瑚生态系统 (MCE) 中多毛类动物的分类学和生态学的信息是有限的。为了填补这一信息空白，在 2007 年至 2012 年期间，使用技术潜水从波多黎各和美属维尔京群岛的几个中光地区（深度在 40-91 m 之间）收集了地层样本。共有 76 个属，分布在 34 个科中。确定。所有属以前都曾在加勒比地区和其他海洋生态区报告过。Syllidae 是所有采样地点中代表性最好的科，属数量最多（15 个），个体数量最多（5,755 个，占总记录的 80.85%）。Haplosyllis 是采样地点中最丰富和最频繁采样的属。Bajo de Sico，波多黎各西海岸的中生珊瑚生态系统 (MCE)，是拥有最高丰度的位置（1,183 条蠕虫），而波多黎各西南海岸拉帕尔格拉自然保护区外延伸的岛架的 MCE 的属数量最多（59 个），这可能与较高的采样工作量及其更大的空间异质性。在我们的定性样本中，多毛类属的丰度和数量在较浅的位置（<60 m）往往高于在较深的位置（>60 m）。