of the five stations represents different habitats in the sampling area, 

 and at each station the abundance of species changes. .There are 

 several species abundant at more than one station, but no single 

 species was the dominant one at all five stations (Table 17) . The 

 following is a detailed composition of benthic macroinvertebrates at 

 each of the five transect stations, plus the two sites (A and B) in 

 30 feet of water. 



(1) Station 1 . This station, located in the swash zone, 

 produced 25 species of macroinvertebrates plus one species of fish in 

 12 months of sampling (Table 18). Four species dominated the catch, 

 constituting over 99 percent of the individuals. The most abundant 

 animal was the polychaete, Saolelepis squamata, representing 44.2 

 percent of the individuals. The common pelecypod, Donax texasianus 3 

 ranked second with 41 percent; the anomuran, Emevita talpoida 3 was 

 third with 8.6 percent; and an amphipod, Eaustorius n. sp., was fourth 

 in abundance representing 5.5 percent of the individuals. 



The number of species in the major animal groups varied from a high 

 of six for amphipods, four of which are new species, to nine taxa which 

 were represented by a single species (Table 18). 



Seasonally, the highest number of individuals occurred during May 

 and June (68 percent of the -individuals) with a secondary peak in 

 February. The month of least abundance was November, followed by 

 December, August, September, and October. The number of species was 

 highest in July and August, and lowest in November and January 

 (Table 18). 



(2) Station 2 . This station was located on the first sandbar 

 and was represented by 31 species of macroinvertebrates and 2 species 

 of fish (Tables 16 and 19). It was sampled quarterly on all nine 

 transects. Four species dominated the catch. They constituted 94 

 percent of the individuals. Three of the four species were also 

 abundant at station 1. The pelecypod, D. texasianus, was clearly the 

 dominant animal, representing 72.2 percent of the individuals. The 

 other three species in decreasing order of abundance (Table 19) were: 

 Haustovius n. sp. (8.8 percent); S. squamata (7.8 percent); and the 

 cumacean, Manaoauma sp. Ten of the 31 macroinvertebrate species were 

 represented by only one specimen at station 2. 



The number of species in the major animal groups varied from seven 

 for polychaetes and amphipods to one for each of 10 other major taxa 

 (Table 19). Six of the seven species of amphipods at station 2 were 

 new species. 



Seasonally, the highest number of individuals (85 percent) occurred 



58 



