Abstract:
Hermosillo (2004) published a list of the 75 species of opisthobranch mollusks she recorded at Parque Nacional de Coiba during a Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute expedition in May 2003 aboard the R/V Urraca. According to Hermosillo (2004), the island of Coiba and all its surrounding islands and islets were declared a national park in 1991 and is now one of the most extensive parks in the world with 53,582 hectares of land surface and 216,543 hectares of marine sanctuaries. One very importam update is that diligem efforts of Dr. Todd Capson, Dr. Alicia lbafiez, Dr. Ross Robertson, Dr. Hector Guzman, Mr. Joe Pigozzi and other Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute scientists resulted in the inclusion of Parque Nacional de Coiba in UNESCO World Heritage Status in 2005. Hermosillo (2004) reported 22 species that were range extensions, not previously known for Panama or anywhere else south of Panama and 10 were undescribed species. Currently, all of these taxa are in the process of being described or are in press. The presem paper contains the findings from a parallel STRI project of Camacho-Garcia that combined with data from Hermosillo (2004) increases the total number of opisthobranch species reported in the Park to 89. The material collected has been deposited at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (LACM), Smithsonian Tropical Research Institution (STRI), and the Zoology Museum at the University of Costa Rica (UCR) as shown in table 1.
