New records of the Californian lancelet Branchiostoma californiense (Cephalochordata: Branchiostomidae) from the Pacific coast of Mexico

Abstract

A number of specimens of the Californian lancelet, Branchiostoma californiense Andrews, 1893 were found in Isla Melendres, Sinaloa and Bahía Chamela, Jalisco, in the Mexican Pacific. The specimens were collected with a biological dredge on sandy bottoms. Some morphometric and meristic characters of the collected specimens are described and discussed herein. This is the first record of the species for the Bahía Chamela in the central Mexican Pacific and second for the Sinaloa state in the Gulf of California, confirming their distribution along the Eastern Pacific from the coast of California coast, USA to Panama. However, an extensive area of the southern Mexican Pacific (∼1,500km from Colima to Chiapas) have scarce records of this species, this possibly due to the lack of sampling effort on this group in the area.