Notes on Agave in the Netherlands West Indies and North Venezuela

In Curaçao, Aruba and Bonaire the most common species of Agave is A. vivipara. Although the variability is rather great, this species is nearly always easily recognizable. In Aruba, however, in two localities agaves are found, namely A. Rutteniae and A. arubensis, which differ from A. vivipara in their generative parts only. The A. Cocui, which occasionally occurs in Curaçao and Bonaire, but which has probably been introduced from the coast of Venezuela, differs from these species, both in shape and size. A. Boldinghiana, which is found here and there on alle three islands, is in herbarium material not always easily distinguished from the above named species, in the field it is always easily recognizable. A. Karatto, which is frequently cultivated as a living hedge in Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire, has very little in common with the other agaves growing there; this species occurs also in St. Eustatius and the neighbouring islands and it seems probable that it was introduced from there in former times, when there was a more lively trade between these islands. On the Venezuelan Continent there probably is only one species of Agave, A. Cocui, which, however, shows a wide range of variability in the form of the terminal spine. In Trinidad and Chacachacare A. evadens occurs; possibly it may be found on the neighbouring part of the continent as well. On the Venezuelan Islands, A. vivipara is known from Blanquilla and Los Hermanos, A. Cocui from Los Frailes and Los Testigos. The common agave of Margarita, which I determined as A. vivipara, resembles a special form of A. Cocui growing on the continental coast opposite. Although it seems not possible to differentiate them clearly, yet, for the time being, it does not seem advisable to unite these two species

Caribbean tiger beetles of the genus Megacephala

The small collection of tiger-beetles, belonging to the genus Megacephala, which is the subject of this paper, was incidentally made by the author during his visits to the Lesser Antilles in 1936-’37 and 1948-’49. The greater part of the material has been deposited at the “Zoologisch Museum” of Amsterdam and the “Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie” at Leiden. Some specimens (27 M. sobrina from Porlamar, Margarita, and Deenterra, Bonaire) were presented to the collections of the American Museum of Natural History, British Museum, Deutsches Entomologisches Institut, incl. Coll. Horn, Hope Department of Entomology at Oxford, The Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture in Trinidad, Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique at Brussel, United States National Museum, the Zoological Museum at Copenhagen, and the Zoologisches Museum der Humboldt Universität at Berlin, whose keepers kindly entrusted me with some material included in this study. The specimens presented by the U. S. Nat. Mus. were given to Amsterdam, those from the Amer. Mus. to Leiden

Marine localities

Some twenty-five years have passed since short descriptions were published of marine and saltpond habitats sampled in the Caribbean during three zoological collecting trips made by the author in 1930, 1936/37 and 1948/49 (these Studies, vol. 4, no. 17, 1953). Sampling of the shallow coastal waters of the Caribbean was continued in 1955, 1963/64, 1967, 1968, 1970 and 1973, during six visits the main purpose of which was not always the study of the marine fauna. Although collecting was done single-handed and rather incidentally, with no other equipment than a knife, fine-meshed nets, formaldehyde and alcohol, the material collected proved to be sufficiently valuable for scientific purposes to justify the publication of a list of the new marine localities. In this paper the descriptions of the “Marine Habitats”, published in 1953 (p. 56-58) are included, but those of the “Salt Pond Habitats” (p. 69-77) are only referred to

Mollusks of the Genera Cerion and Tudora

Although the islands of Curaçao, Aruba and Bonaire have received the attention of many naturalists, from the beginning of the West-Indian trade until to-day, it was not before 1924 that a suitable publication on the “Land and Freshwater Molluscs of the Dutch Leeward Islands” was written by Horace Burrington Baker. I should like to express my appreciation of this work, which not only facilitated my studies, but, at the same time, forced me to collect the landshells of these islands in a most intensive and systematical way, — because I should not have been competent to critisize his results, if I had not had a material of at least the same value at my disposal. As Baker very precisely localized his stations, I could collect a large series of topotypes of nearly all his new species and subspecies. This, in addition to his reproductions of the holotypes and paratypes, and the comparison of some of his paratypes in the Zoological Museum of Amsterdam, made a study of Baker’s collection rather unnecessary

Caribbean land molluscs: Cerion in the Cayman Islands

This paper presents a survey of the present situation of Cerion in the Cayman Islands, with reference to the problems revealed by CH. J. MAYNARD’S “Monograph of the genus Strophia”, 1889. This may be of interest to taxonomists who would like to investigate in a “modern way” a species complex in which any “biological species concept” appears to fail. The study is based on material collected in Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac, from May 16 until June 12, 1973. CLENCH (1964) considers the names of all 14 species described by MAYNARD from Little Cayman and Cayman Brac to be synonyms of Cerion pannosum (Maynard), with the exception of Strophia nana which he accepts as Cerion nanus (Maynard). While agreeing with CLENCH as regards the status of Strophia nana, the author hesitates to lump together all MAYNARDS other species but considers that at least two variable and intergrading groups of Cerion (= Strophia) should be distinguished: C. pannosum, common to western Little Cayman, and C. copium, common in eastern Little Cayman and in Cayman Brac. An impression of the taxonomic complexity of Cerion on the Cayman Islands may be gained by consulting the section in which all 95 localities (Grand Cayman 35, Little Cayman 21 and Cayman Brac 39) are briefly described, with reference to numerous measurements (Tables 2-4), maps and graphs (Figs. 8-22), and photographs of localities (Pls. I—VIII) and specimens (Pls. X-XVIII). The cerions of Grand Cayman – which island was not visited by MAYNARD – have generally been considered to belong to one and the same species, Cerion martinianum (Küster). Living populations were observed at a few places only. No distinct geographical speciation was found. In the western part of Little Cayman flourishing coarsely striated large Cerion pannosum was found, commonly mixed with smooth or almost smooth specimens. Along the northern coast C. pannosum merges into C. copium, common in the eastern part of the island, while a distinct boundary between both species was observed on the southwest coast, east of Blossom Village. Several old shells outside the area of living C. pannosum suggest the species having had a more extended range in former days. Cerion nanus (Maynard) – which was not collected by the author – may be expected to be still living in the central part of the West End. The author had no dfficulty following PILSBRY (1949) in accepting Cerion copium as the only recent species of Cayman Brac, except when dealing with some closely ribbed and uniformly brown specimens from The Bluff along the northern shore, which were indicated as bluff-type. Similar specimens were observed by PILSBRY when studying the material collected by C. BERNARD LEWIS in 1940. Small-sized copiums were especially common near the southwest coast at Knob Hill, while at several places medium-sized animals with coarse and distant ribs occurred. A few old shells resembling C. pannosum contributed to the heterogenity of Cayman Brac’s malacofauna. A rather strange element was revealed by the discovery of some small, minutely striated subrecent shells near the northcoast, which are described as a new species, Cerion caymanicolum, awaiting a further analysis of the Cayman Islands’ Cerion fauna. The paper concludes by giving a Synopsis of Cerion in the Cayman Islands, followed by some notes on C. martinianum, C. nanus, C. pannosum, C. copium and C. caymanicolum. From this (Table 5) it may be obvious that – the author has no doubt that C. nanus is markedly different from all other Cayman Islands cerions; – the rationale (beyond geography) for distinguishing the Grand Cayman forms as a separate species is less convincing, as several small specimens of C. martinianum don’t look very different from some dwarfed forms from the other islands; – the species C. pannosum and C. copium are separated not for practical reasons only, but also because of field evidence; – the specimens of C. caymanicolum are considered to belong to a new species because of their deviating characteristics and peculiar occurrence, though some likeness with dwarfed C. martinianum and C. copium cannot be denied

Notes on the Caribbean crown conch Melongena Melongena

The interest of the second author in the variability of Melongena melongena (L.) was aroused by the discovery of a population of dwarf specimens living in shallow tidal pools connected with the mangrove lagoon of Lac, Bonaire, in 1976 (see Figs 1-4). Further collecting resulted in bringing together a rather large number of recent and subrecent shells from various Caribbean localities which served as a base for the present study (see Appendix)