Zoogeography of Caribbean Insects / / ed. by James K. Liebherr.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Archive Pre-2000
• MitwirkendeR: Connor, Edward F.,; Donnelly, Thomas W.,; Eickwort, George C.,; Grimaldi, David A.,; Hamilton, Steven W.,; Liebherr, James K.,; Nichols, Stephen W.,; Ramos, J. A.,; Slater, James A.,; Wilson, Edward O.,
• HerausgeberIn: Liebherr, James K.,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2019]; ©1988
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (304 p.)

Because historical biogeography—the study of historical causes of biotic distributions—is a comparative science, one must draw on data from many different disciplines. This book brings together for the first time the results of studies on a variety of insect groups native to the islands of the Caribbean, and is intended as an early progress report on the use of insects in biogeographical research from this area.The Caribbean has been of great interest to zoogeographers because of its geologic position and history, and because the fauna is of limited diversity relative to mainland America. This limited diversity coupled with the accessibility of the islands has resulted in the Caribbean fauna being relatively well known compared to other Neotropical faunas. Intriguing questions include how and when the West Indian islands became populated, how the fauna and flora of the islands relate to those of the continents, and whether the Caribbean islands served as a dispersal corridor between the Americas.As the interpretation of biographic patterns and knowledge of earth history go hand in hand, this book appropriately opens with a chapter reviewing the geology of the Caribbean and its land masses, including various interpretations of plate tectonics. Eight specialists on six orders of insects then present from study sites in the Caribbean the results of their research on the biogeographic distribution and historical biogeography of their study animals. A final chapter puts into a concise framework the various methods by which taxonomists approach biogeography.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- CONTRIBUTORS -- 1. The Caribbean: Fertile Ground for Zoogeography -- 2. Geologic Constraints on Caribbean Biogeography -- 3. Zoogeography of West Indian Lygaeidae (Hemiptera) -- 4. Zoogeography of the Auchenorrhynchous Homoptera of the Greater Antilles (Hemiptera) -- 5. Kaleidoscopic Biogeography of West Indian Scaritinae (Coleoptera: Carabidae) -- 6. Biogeographic Patterns of West Indian Platynus Carabid Beetles (Coleoptera) -- 7. Historical Biogeography of Two Groups of Caribbean Polycentropus (Trichoptera: Polycentropodidae) -- 8. Relicts in the Drosophilidae (Diptera) -- 9. The Biogeography of the West Indian Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) -- 10. Distribution Patterns and Biology of West Indian Sweat Bees (Hymenoptera: Halictidae) -- 11. Fossils, Phenetics, and Phylogenetics: Inferring the Historical Dynamics of Biogeographic Distributions -- SUBJECT INDEX -- TAXONOMIC INDEX