Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 March 2003
A number of mangrove systems with associated tidal flats occur in Coiba Island, located off the Pacific coast of Panama, two of which were selected for the present study: Santa Cruz and El Gambute. Three transects were selected on each tidal flat and three sampling sites were arranged along each one: lower, middle and upper intertidal. During 1997, two samplings were carried out at each site, in February and November. The results of the faunistic studies revealed the presence of ten species of Orbiniidae, two of which belonged to the genus Leodamas. Leodamas minutus sp. nov. is easily distinguished from all other species within the genus by having a cylindrical thorax composed of 13 chaetigers, the first three chaetigers without notopodial lobes, thoracic neuropodia without postchaetal process, and abdominal neuropodia, short, bilobed and with protruding acicula. Leodamas platythoracicus sp. nov. can be recognized by its thorax, distinctly flattened in the posterior half and consisting of about 19 chaetigers, by its thoracic neuropodia, with many spines arranged in one or two rows and few, if any, slender capillaries, and by the shape of its abdominal neuropodia, which are long and subterminally notched and bear a distal process.