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There are more species of shrimps, lobsters,
and crabs in the marine waters of the state of
Florida than in any other region of the
continental United States. This great diversity
is the result of three factors: (1) Florida's
coastline is extensive; (2) a tremendous
number of marine habitats occurs in Florida;
and (3) two biogeographic regions come
together in Florida, the northern Carolinian
and the southern Caribbean (or West Indian).
The total number of decapods in the marine
Published work on the decapod crustaceans
occuring in Florida dates from the earliest
explorations by Europeans in the Caribbean
and western Atlantic. Many of these
contained brief descriptions and even some
illustrations (e. g., Sloane, 1725), which were
given nomenclatural status by Linnaeus
(1758). Many of the species described by
Gibbes (1850), Stimpson (1860,1871), and
Kingsley (1878) occurred in the marine waters
of Florida. Professor H. E. Webster collected
along the gulf coast of Florida, and these
collections were published on by Kingsley
(1879). Additional Florida collections were
reported on by Ives (1891). The Blake
expeditions included Florida material, which
was published by A. Milne Edwards and
Bouvier(1893,1897,1902,1909,1923).
Modern published work dealing explicitly
with Florida marine decapods is scattered.
Chace (1942a) described five new species of
decapods from the west coast of Florida.
Wass (1955) published an annotated list of the
decapods of northwestern Florida and
described three new species. Provenzano
(1959) reviewed the hermit crabs of Florida
and described one new species. Hulings
(1961) added several new records from deeper
water in the northeastern gulf. Wells and
Wells (1961) described a new species of crab
from the northern gulf, as did Salmon and
Atsaides (1968) and Novak and Salmon
(1974). Although not dealing specifically
Introduction
Brief Review of the Literature
shallow waters of Florida is probably close to
900 (see Methods and Materials).
The literature on Florida's decapods is
scattered and incomplete and often lacks keys
or illustrations. The present contribution is an
attempt to remedy this situation. We have
compiled a checklist, keys, and illustrations of
all marine, shallow-water (< 300 m) decapod
crustaceans known to occur in Florida, a total
of 724 species.
with Florida, William's (1965a) excellent
volume on the decapods of the Carolinas
contains a tremendous amount of information
relevant to the Florida fauna. The 1984
revision of this work (Williams, 1984)
extended the coverage to include the
northeastern Atlantic coast of Florida.
Beginning in the 1970's, there was a virtual
explosion of information on Florida decapods.
Biffar (1971a, 1971b) reviewed the
callianassids of Florida. Abele(1971,1972a,
1972b, 1972c, 1973) reviewed the status of
some palaemonids, xanthids, atyids, and
grapsids in Florida. McLaughlin and
Provenzano (1974a, 1974b), and McLaughlin
and co-workers (McLaughlin, 1981a, 1981b,
1982; Garcia-G6mez, 1982; Lemaitre, 1982;
Lemaitre et al., 1982) provided extensive
information on the hermit crabs of Florida.
Beginning in 1973, Robert H. Gore published
a series of papers on the decapods of the
Indian River region of Florida, including a
major work on parthenopid crabs (e. g.,
Hendrix and Gore, 1973; Gore 1977,1979,
1981; Gore and Wilson, 1978; Gore and
Scotto, 1979; Kensley and Gore, 1981).
Mayo (1973) reviewed the genus Cancellus
including Florida material. Additional data on
Florida decapods can be found in Rouse
(1970) and in the results of the Hourglass
cruises (e. g., Lyons, 1970; Cobb, 1971,
1973; Cobb et al., 1973).
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