Abstract
53 species are reported, representing 35 genera and 8 families. Included are 12 species not previously known from the Bahamas: Cronius tuber, Micropanope pusilla, Panopeus boekei, Paraliomera dispar, Pilumnus nudimanus (first known male), Pilumnus gemmatus, Geograpsus lividus, Batrachonotus fragosus, Macrocoeloma subparallelum, Mithrax acuticornis, Teleophrys pococki, and Thoe puella. Known ranges were extended: of Panopeus boekei from Lesser Antilles, of Pilumnus nudimanus from Puerto Rico, and of Teleophrys pococki from Brazil and Curaçao.
Of 50 species analyzed geographically, one, Portunus bahamensis, is a Bahamas Islands endemic species. 41 occur only in the western Atlantic, and 8 occur in other regions as well: 4 in the eastern Pacific, western Pacific, and eastern Atlantic; 2 in the eastern Pacific and eastern Atlantic; and 2 in the western Pacific and eastern Atlantic. Of the 41 western Atlantic species, 24 have eastern Pacific analogues (most closely related species). These, plus the 6 species actually found in the eastern Pacific, represent an amphi-American tropical fauna that antedates the late Miocene closure of the Panama Portal. The 22 species common to Bermuda, 2 to Ascension, and one each to Gape Verde and St. Thomas, West Africa, indicate larval dispersal to oceanic islands by means of ocean currents.
Allan Hancock Foundation Contribution No. 369.
Allan Hancock Foundation Contribution No. 369.
Notes
Allan Hancock Foundation Contribution No. 369.
