A Catalogue of the Coleoptera of the Dutch Antilles E.O
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Tijdschrift voor Entomologie 162 (2019) 67–186 A catalogue of the Coleoptera of the Dutch Antilles E.O. Colijn, K.K. Beentjes, R. Butôt, J.A. Miller, J.T. Smit, A.J. de Winter and B. van der Hoorn This paper presents a first critical review of the beetle species (Insecta: Coleoptera) reported from the (former) Dutch Antilles as well as a history of beetle collecting and collectors on the islands. The introductory section provides a concise overview of the location, climate, geology and vegetation of the six islands. The catalogue is concluded with miscellaneous additions, corrections and annotations to the published records of the other islands of the northern Leeward Islands, and a comprehensive bibliography. (ZooBank registration: http://zoobank.org/ E2D76464-5AAE-4D75-9AC5-CA119E65D72A Keywords: E.O. Colijn*, J.T. Smit, European Invertebrate Survey, PO Box 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands. [email protected] K.K. Beentjes, R. Butôt, J.A. Miller, A.J. de Winter, B. van der Hoorn, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, PO Box 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands Introduction Peck (2011, 2016) recently published an overview Little has changed since Wallace (1876) and almost of the beetles of the Lesser Antilles, including the a century later Geijskes & Wagenaar Hummelinck northern Dutch Antilles. These papers are largely (1951) wrote that only few have occupied themselves based on Blackwelder’s (1944–1957) “Checklist of with the entomology of the Antilles. There is still a the coleopterous insects of Mexico, Central America, the lot more to discover than is known at present about West Indies, and South America”. The present report the islands’ insect fauna. Ivie et al. (2008a) discuss offers a first critical review of all published records of the considerable challenges of conducting inverte- the islands of the Dutch Antilles including informa- brate inventories in the Antilles. Major problems are tion about their collectors and important collections. caused by the so-called taxonomic impediment, i.e. A number of new island records for the Dutch Antil- the gap in our taxonomic knowledge and the short- les are also added, as well as corrections and addi- age of trained taxonomists for the Antillean region. tions to the checklists by Blackwelder (1944–1957) As far as the Coleoptera are concerned the only rela- and Peck (2011, 2016) for the non-Dutch northern tively well-studied groups in the Antilles comprise Leeward Islands. the larger species of families such as the Carabidae, Scarabaeidae, Cerambycidae and Tenebrionidae. Bright (2019) recently published a comprehensive The islands of the (former) Dutch Antilles review of the Scolytinae which is now probably the The (former) Dutch Antilles comprise the islands best studied group in the Antilles. For most other Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao (also called the ABC groups modern revisions are lacking. The number of islands) in the Leeward Antilles near the northeast- new provisional and genus-level records in this pa- ern Venezuelan coast and Saba, St. Eustatius and St. per and others (e.g. Ivie et al. 2008b) illustrate that Maarten in the northern Leeward Islands (Fig. 1). fact. The two islands groups are approximately 900 km Tijdschrift voor Entomologie 162: 67–186, Tables 1–2, Figs 1–32. [ISSN 0040-7496]. brill.com/tve © The authors, 2020. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license. Published by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden. Published 18 December 2020. DOI 10.1163/22119434-bja10006 * Corresponding author Downloaded from Brill.com01/29/2021 05:47:44PM via free access <UN> 68 Tijdschrift voor Entomologie, volume 162, 2019 Figure 1. The (former) Dutch Antilles. Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao are part of the Leeward Antilles; Saba, St. Eustatius, and St. Martin are part of the Leeward Islands. apart. St. Maarten is the southern part of the island temperatures. The average annual temperature in the St. Martin which is politically divided between the Leeward Antilles is approximately 28°C. The Lee- Netherlands and France (Fig. 2). Saba (Fig. 3), St. ward Antilles are located on the southern boundary Eustatius (Fig. 4) and Bonaire (Fig. 5) are current- of the Atlantic hurricane region and, contrary to the ly special municipalities of the Netherlands while Leeward Islands, the hurricane experience level for Aruba (Fig. 6), Curaçao (Fig. 7) and St. Maarten are the islands is considered to be very small. Roughly independent countries within the Kingdom of The once every 100 years considerable damage has been Netherlands. The former French part of St. Martin experienced by a hurricane passing over the islands is a separate overseas collectivity (collectivité d’outre- (Martis et al. 2002, MDNA&A 2009, 2010, CBS mer) of France. For convenience the term “former” 2010, 2011). is omitted in the rest of the text. Table 1 gives the Saba, St. Eustatius and St. Martin have a wetter basic properties and the number of Coleoptera spe- tropical marine climate. With a mean annual pre- cies currently known for each island. cipitation of around 1000 mm, the Leeward Islands receive about twice as much rain as the islands of the Climate Leeward Antilles. However, all weather stations are The islands of the Leeward Antilles are situated in located in lowland areas and rainfall on the moun- the Southern Caribbean Dry Zone and have a semi- tains of Saba and St. Eustatius is certainly higher, arid tropical marine climate. The mean annual pre- possibly as much as twice the amount the lowlands cipitation amounts to 550 mm with a large year-to- receive. The wettest months, with an average month- year variation: the standard deviation is larger than ly precipitation between 90 and 150 mm, are Au- the mean. Rain falls irregularly, chiefly in short-lived gust till December. There is a relatively dry period showers that are often local. There is a “dry season” between January and April. As on the islands of the from February till September. The amount of pre- Leeward Antilles, temperatures are rather constant cipitation during these months is about 200 mm over the year with an average annual temperature of in Curaçao and Bonaire, and less than 150 mm in about 27°C. The Leeward Islands are located within Aruba. In the “rainy season”, from October till Janu- the Atlantic hurricane belt. The “official” Atlantic ary, the average precipitation lies between 300 and hurricane season runs from June through November 350 mm. Temperatures are rather constant over the but occasionally starts as early as May and may ex- year with a difference of only 3°C in average daily tend to December. Almost every year at least one Downloaded from Brill.com01/29/2021 05:47:44PM via free access <UN> Colijn et al.: Coleoptera of the Dutch Antilles 69 Figure 2. St. Maarten (southern part) / St. Martin (northern part). © OpenStreetMap (and) contributors, CC-BY-SA. Figure 3. Saba. © OpenStreetMap (and) contributors, CC-BY-SA. tropical cyclone comes within a range of 100 nauti- erful and catastrophic hurricane Irma which hit the cal miles and on average once every four to five years islands in September 2017. It was the first category hurricane conditions are experienced on the islands. 5 hurricane on record to strike the Leeward Islands The most recent hurricane was the extremely pow- (MDNA&A 2009, 2010, CBS 2010). Downloaded from Brill.com01/29/2021 05:47:44PM via free access <UN> 70 Tijdschrift voor Entomologie, volume 162, 2019 Figure 4. St. Eustatius. © OpenStreetMap (and) contributors, CC-BY-SA. Figure 5. Bonaire. © OpenStreetMap (and) contributors, CC-BY-SA. Geology American plates. Although considered continental Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao lie along the crest islands, the Leeward Antilles ridge is actually located of the so-called Leeward Antilles ridge. This ridge between the Caribbean and the South American was formed by a series of complicated tectonic plates with Bonaire and Curaçao both separated interactions between the Caribbean and South from the Venezuelan mainland, and each other, by Downloaded from Brill.com01/29/2021 05:47:44PM via free access <UN> Colijn et al.: Coleoptera of the Dutch Antilles 71 Figure 6. Aruba. © OpenStreetMap (and) contributors, CC-BY-SA. Figure 7. Curaçao. © OpenStreetMap (and) contributors, CC-BY-SA. more than 1000 m deep seas. Aruba is the only is- covered with marine sediments and limestone de- land that is separated from the Venezuelan mainland posits (Wagenaar Hummelinck 1940, Hippolyte & by a relatively shallow sea with a maximum depth Mann 2011, Schmutz et al. 2017). of approximately 180 m. The islands of this group The Leeward Islands form a double arc of two are relatively flat and consist of volcanic rocks partly geologically different groups of islands. St. Eustatius Downloaded from Brill.com01/29/2021 05:47:44PM via free access <UN> 72 Tijdschrift voor Entomologie, volume 162, 2019 and Saba are part of the inner arc consisting of rela- tively young and active high volcanic islands. The former has two volcanic areas. The northern hills are 975 440 520 785 1125 1280 the remnants of an extinct 500 million-year-old vol- cano. The southern Quill, is a dormant 601 m high Number of Number Coleoptera species ** hypothesized stratovolcano that has not erupted for more than 1600–1700 years. On the southern side of the Quill lies a steep limestone cliff, an uplifted and tilted part 300 of marine sediment of shallow-water origin that was displaced by submarine volcanic activity. During the Number of Number Coleoptera species in litt. 2020) (Ivie Last Glacial Maximum St. Eustatius was connected ) to the neighbouring islands St. Kitts and Nevis. Mount Scenery (887 m) on Saba is also a dormant volcano although it is considered potentially active.