The beetles of the island of St. Vincent, Lesser Antilles (Insecta: Coleoptera); diversity and distributions

  • This paper summarizes the information published on the beetle fauna of the island of St. Vincent (excluding the Grenadine islands). The fauna contains 62 families, with 371 genera, and 536 species. The families with the largest number of species are Staphylinidae (128), Curculionidae (54), Chrysomelidae (47), Scarabaeidae (31), Tenebrionidae (30), and Cerambycidae (29). At least 17 species (3.17%) were probably accidentally introduced to the island by human activities. One hundred four species (19.40%) are endemic (restricted) to the island and likely speciated on the island. One hundred twenty species (22.39%) are shared only with other islands of the Lesser Antilles (Lesser Antillean endemics), and 41 species (7.65%) are more widespread Antilles endemics. The remaining 254 species (47.38%) in the fauna are otherwise mostly widely distributed in the Antilles and the Neotropical Region. The St. Vincent beetle fauna has thus mostly originated elsewhere than on St. Vincent and is largely an immigrant fauna from other islands of the West Indies or the continental Neotropics. Of the St. Vincent species known to occur on other islands, the largest numbers are shared with (north to south) Guadeloupe (206), Dominica (115), Martinique (76), St. Lucia (87) and Grenada (298). Undoubtedly, the real number of species on St. Vincent is higher than now reported and may actually be around 1200 or more species.

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Metadaten
Author:Stewart Blaine Peck
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-87750
URL:http://centerforsystematicentomology.org/insectamundi/0144Peck.pdf
ISSN:1942-1354
Parent Title (English):Insecta mundi : a journal of world insect systematics
Series (Serial Number):Insecta Mundi (0144)
Publisher:Center for Systematic Entomology
Place of publication:Gainesville, Fla.
Document Type:Part of Periodical
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2010/12/20
Year of first Publication:2010
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Contributing Corporation:Center for Systematic Entomology, Inc.
Release Date:2010/12/20
Volume:2010
Page Number:77
HeBIS-PPN:302974989
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 57 Biowissenschaften; Biologie / 570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie
Sammlungen:Sammlung Biologie / Sondersammelgebiets-Volltexte
Licence (German):License LogoDeutsches Urheberrecht