First record and geographic range extension of the coccolithophore Scyphosphaera apsteinii Lohman, 1902 (Haptophyta: Pontosphaeraceae) from the Pacific coast of Mexico

The coccolithophorid Scyphosphaera apsteinii is here reported for the first time from waters off the west coast of the Baja California Peninsula. Scyphosphaera apsteinii is the type species of the genus Scyphosphaera and had hitherto been recorded only in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, the Mediterranean, and the Caribbean Seas. Specimens were found in samples collected in nets off Isla de Guadalupe in January 2013. This recording thus extends the geographical distribution of S. apsteinii from the Central Pacific (Hawaii) to the Eastern Pacific (NW Mexico).