The Arachnids (Arachnida) of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao
2019
Crews, Sarah C. | Debrot, Adolphe O. | van Hoorn, Gijs | Galvis, William | Esposito, Lauren A.
Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao (ABC Islands) are located at the southern margin of the Caribbean Plate, just north of South America. Little is known of the arachnid fauna of these islands, and the only work on spiders was published over a century ago. Here we provide a list of arachnids opportunistically collected from the islands, including Klein Bonaire and Klein Curaçao, over approximately 2 months. More than 750 specimens from 4 arachnid orders, (Amblypygi, Pseudoscorpiones, Scorpiones, Araneae) were collected and identified. We recovered 1 species of amblypygid, 2 species of pseudoscorpions, 1 species of scorpion, and 76 species of spiders. Additionally, we compared species diversity between urban and natural areas. The number of species is relatively low given the proximity to South America, but this likely reflects that collecting only took place for a short time and was opportunistic as opposed to systematic. Nevertheless, we found 25 new records and >20 likely undescribed species for the islands, providing insights into the spider fauna of northern South America and indicating that additional surveys of the area are warranted.
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