Based on qualitative data on prosobranch gastropods present at eight seamounts and islands of the Vitória-Trindade Seamount Chain off the eastern coast of Brazil, similarities at the species level are examined, and the effects of selection for different modes of development varying with increasing distance from the coast are investigated. Number of species decreases significantly from the continent towards easternmost localities. Similarity coefficients and cluster analysis suggest that similarities are greater among the western seamounts, followed by the eastern, most oceanic localities. Subtidal stations on Trindade Island show less similarity at specific level when compared with the remaining sublittoral stations. Percentages and absolute numbers of species with intracapsular metamorphosis decrease rapidly away from the coast in the sublittoral localities. However, there is little variation for the ratio planktotrophs/lecithotrophs among these localities, and their percentages remained constant over the entire Chain. In spite of the slightly wider range of distribution of planktotrophs within the Chain, the observations suggest that both planktotrophs and lecithotrophs can be effectively dispersed, probably by passive larval transport, in an ‘island-hopping’ pattern across the relatively small distances (100–250 km) that separate summits in the Chain. Notwithstanding shallow, subtidal conditions and intense isolation, percentages of planktotrophs and lecithotrophs also do not vary at the subtidal Trindade stations.