B. ftovidae, representing 17.6 percent of the total individuals 

 (Table 24) . 



At station B, the month of May had the highest numbers of 

 individuals; November had the least. Numbers of species were highest 

 in August and lowest in February (Table 24) . 



b. Transects . The distribution of macro invertebrates along the 

 beach on the nine transects varied slightly over the 12-month sampling 

 period. Twenty-eight samplings were made on each transect, 12 at 

 station 1 and 4 each at stations 2 to 5. The average number of species 

 ranged from a low of 8.4 per station on transect 1 to a high of 10 

 per station on transect 2 (Table 25) . The number of individuals 

 fluctuated to a greater extent than the number of species. The lowest 

 average number of individuals per station was 96.7 on transect 3; the 

 highest average per station was 218.9 on transect 9 (Table 25). 



Table 25. Average number of species and individuals 

 collected per station over the 12-month 

 sampling period at the nine transects. 



Transect 



Species 



Individuals 



1 



8.4 



200.2 



2 



10.0 



169.5 



3 



9.3 



96.7 



4 



8.5 



175.1 



5 



8.6 



186.8 



6 



9.5 



161.2 



7 



9.0 



156.2 



8 



8.7 



155.4 



9 



9.1 



218.9 



Average 



9.0 



168.9 



The similarity of benthic animal distribution and abundance is 

 further reflected in the distribution of the 14 most abundant species 

 on the nine transects. The accumulative total percentage of these 14 

 species on each of the nine transects varied from 90.1 to 95.9 percent 

 (Table 26) . Individuals of two species (E. ooncentvioa and Mancocwna 

 sp.) were concentrated on single transects; the distribution of the 

 other 12 species was more uniform on the nine transects. 



c. Depth Distribution . In this study, each plug sample was 

 divided into a top and bottom part of 11.5 centimeters each. Each part 



80 



