The aim of this paper is to describe the little studied shallow water
benthic foraminiferal fauna of the Fernando de Noronha archipelago, Br
azil, The archipelago is about 15 km in length and is located just nor
th of the equator off the northeastern coast of Brazil. Samples were c
ollected using SCUBA to depths of 30 m. Benthic foraminifera were anal
ysed qualitatively and quantitatively. About 150 species were identifi
ed with the fauna composed of 74 porcelaneous species, 64 hyaline spec
ies, and 10 agglutinated species. Miliolids comprise more than one thi
rd of all species recognized and constitute 40-60% of the individuals
in all samples. Most of the species identified have been previously re
ported from the Caribbean region and the fauna can be assigned to the
West Indian faunal province.