Center for Systematic Entomology, Gainesville, Florida
Date of this Version
4-11-2008
Abstract
A faunal list of 996 species of Coleoptera in 552 genera in 74 families is presented for the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. For most species, island and locality within island collecting information is provided.
Historically, the beetle fauna of the Bahamas has been very poorly known. Leng and Mutchler (1914) in their list of the beetles of the West Indies, recorded only 31 species specifically from the Bahamas. Blackwelder (1944-1957) listed 98 species from the Bahamas (Vaurie 1952b). In neither case did the authors include the names of the individual island for the records. The present list of 996 species in 552 genera in 74 families grew directly out of our experiences on Andros Island, where a list of the Cerambycidae (Thomas and Turnbow 2007) of that island grew into a list of Andros Coleoptera and finally into a checklist of the Coleoptera of the Bahamas as a whole. It should be seen as a preliminary list, as the Bahamas are still relatively poorly collected and the fauna is still poorly known, especially considering how close they are to the United States. Many specimens collected during our trips to Andros Island and Great Inagua remain unidentified.
The publication of this checklist completes a set of checklists that also includes Florida (Peck and Thomas 1998) and Cuba (Peck 2005), which with the Bahamas comprise a natural biogeographic unit with much in common faunistically and floristically.
The list provided here is a combination of literature records (referenced), new information based on our collecting on Andros Island in 2001, 2004, and 2006 and Great Inagua in 2007, and specimen records in the Florida State Collection of Arthropods (FSCA). Literature records for “Bahamas” or “Bahama Islands” only (Blackwelder 1944-1957; Darlington 1953; Erwin and Sims 1984; Leng and Mutchler 1914; O’Brien and Wibmer 1982; Peck 2005; Triplehorn and Watrous 1982; Wibmer and O’Brien 1986; and Young 1954) have been omitted when more specific data have been located. Locality information is presented verbatim; corrections and emendations appear in brackets. The repositories of all specimens listed are supplied when known.
Because the great majority of the species listed are new for the Bahamas, no attempt has been made to identify those as such. Many families are here newly reported from the Bahamas. However, it seems justified to mention the first Bahamian records of Heterobostrychus aequalis (Waterhouse) (Bostrichidae), an Asian powderpost beetle, and Aphanistichus cochinchinae seminulum (Obenberger) (Buprestidae), an Asian sugarcane pest. Both also are established in Florida.
The family composition and arrangement of the list follows Arnett and Thomas (2001), with the following exceptions: Zopheridae include the old Monommatidae (Monommidae) and Colydiidae (see Ivie 2002) and Hybosoridae include Ceratocanthidae (Ocampo 2006), and Cybocephalidae (Smith 2007) and Bolboceratidae (Král et al. 2006) are recognized as distinct families. Families are listed alphabetically; genera are arranged alphabetically under family headings; species are arranged alphabetically within genera.
Comments
Insecta Mundi 0034: 1-64. Published in 2008 by Center for Systematic Entomology, Inc., P. O. Box 147100 Gainesville, FL 32614-7100 U. S. A. http://www.centerforsystematicentomology.org/
Copyright (c) 2008 Robert H. Turnbow Jr. & Michael C. Thomas.