Abstract
Polychacte annelids constitute an important fecding resouree for several spccics of the benthic and dcmersal marine fauna. Their role in the energetic flow of marine ecosystems has been made evidenced by thcir contribution to the diet of fishes (Amaral & Migotto, 1980;Ben-Elihau et 01.,1983;Ben-Elihau & Golani, 1990;Amaral et al., 1994) and crabs (Schembri, 1981; Le Calvez, 1984; 1987;HalI et ai., 1990). The main difficultywhcn studying the diet of crabs is the identification of stomach contents to specific leveI. Nevertheless, concerning the polychaetes, the presence of certain structures which are more resistant to digestion, such as setae, uncini, hooks, mouthpieces and opercula, allowsthe determination to familyleveI.The analysis at this leveI is justified by the great within-family homogeneity regarding the trophic group, position in the sediment and feeding strategies, alI of whichare in agreement with the conccpt of fceding guilds by Fauchald & Jumars (1979). The feeding guild approach has been demonstrated to be rather useful in trophic ecology studies (Maurer & Leathem, 1981;Bianchi & Morri, 1985;Paiva, 1993). Considering that brachyuran crabs are the main megabenthic group (Sartor, 1989; Pires, 1992) and polychaetes the main macrobenthic group in the studied arca (Paiva, 1990; PiresVanin, 1993), the knowledge of their interrelations are fundamental in arder to understand the local trophic web.
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