Open Access

Paul J. Johnson

• Trixagus Kugelann 1794 is the second largest genus of Throscidae with 80 valid species presently assigned. Horn (1885, 1890) reviewed the species for the United States and Mesoamerica, and then Blanchard (1917) revised part of the family for Canada and the United States in a posthumous article edited by H.C. Fall. Schenkling (1928) provided the only published worldwide catalog. Yensen (1975) provided a modern revision for the species for Canada and the United States, and then (Yensen 1980) described T. cobosi from Panama and provided a new key to all of the described American species. Among these studies only T. chevrolati (Bonvouloir 1859) was recorded from southern Florida, thus being a species potentially shared with The Bahamas. Aulonothroscus bicarinatus Fleutiaux (1911, 1947) (Blackwelder 1944), from Guadeloupe, is the only other throscid species previously described from the West Indies. Prior to the work of Lawrence and Newton (1995) the subfamily Lissominae received divergent treatment and was usually treated as a subfamily of Throscidae (e.g., Schenkling 1928, Blackwelder 1944, Yensen 1975). This subfamily is represented in The Bahamas by two species of Drapetes Megerle 1821 (Turnbow and Thomas 2008). Representation of the subsequently restricted family in The Bahamas was provided by two undetermined species of Aulonothroscus Horn listed by Turnbow and Thomas (2008) from Andros, Eleuthera, and Great Inagua islands; these will be treated separately from here. The reporting of a new species of Trixagus from New Providence Island provides a second genus from the country and the entire Lucayan Archipelago, and suggests that related species of both genera from Hispaniola and Cuba are probable and await discovery (Peck 2005; Perez-Gelabert 2008).