6 - The Lesser Antillean Fauna

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the fauna of Lesser Antilles. The Lesser Antilles extend from South America northward in a long arc of more than a dozen major islands and hundreds of small islets. The number of amphibians and reptiles in the Lesser Antilles is related to the island size, diversity of habitat, and distance from the mainland or another large island. There are 95 species of amphibians and reptiles in the Lesser Antilles: six introduced, five known only from the original series of specimens, two known only from fossil record and two vagrants. All the large islands from Guadeloupe south have relatively high diversity, whereas the islands north of Guadeloupe, which are smaller in size, have lower diversity. Endemism in the Lesser Antilles is high and can be examined at two levels, bank endemism and Lesser Antillean endemism. Bank endemics are those species that occur on only one bank of islands while Lesser Antillean endemics are those species that occur on more than one bank, but are restricted to the Lesser Antilles.