6 - Sphaeromatidae::“Cute As Buttons”

266 ZOOGEOGRAPHY
TABLE 5. SPECIES OF ISOPODS OCCURRING ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ISTHMUS
OF PANAMA
*Aega deshaysiana (H. Milne Edwards,
1840)
Anopsilana browni (Van Name, 1936)
Cleantioides planicauda (Benedict,
1899)
Excirolana braiiliensis Richardson,
1912
Excorallana tricornis (Hansen, 1890)
*Nerocila acuminata Schioedte and
Meinert, 1881
* fish parasite or fish predator
of Cape Kennedy, which would indicate a significant cooler-water compo­
nent. What proportion of originally Gulf species have spread into the Carib­
bean, and what proportion of Caribbean and temperate east coast species
have entered the Gulf, cannot yet be assessed, given our incomplete knowl­
edge of the Gulf fauna. Because of this unresolved situation, three categories
of species have been separated: species ranging from north of Cape Kennedy
into the Caribbean—6, 3.6% [12, 5.5%]; species occurring in the Gulf of
Mexico and the Caribbean—9, 5.4% [14, 6.4%]; species occurring north of
Cape Kennedy, in the Gulf, and in the Caribbean—12, 7.2% [21, 9.6%] The
conclusion that the fauna of the Gulf of Mexico contains an endemic compo­
nent, a Caribbean component, and a warm-temperate component was also
reached by Topp and HofT (1972), in an analysis of the pleuronectiform
fishes of the Gulf.
THE BAHAMAS
The Florida Current flowing through the Straits of Florida has been sug­
gested as a factor in reducing the movement of shallow-water fauna between
peninsular Florida and the Florida Keys on the west and the Bahamas on the
east (Briggs, 1974). Comparison of the number of isopod species on either
side of the Straits of Florida (13 from the Bahamas, 50 from southern penin­
sular Florida and the Florida Keys) supports this view. Of the 13 species
from the Bahamas, only four arc "endemic," three of these being interstitial
microcerberideans.
Paradella dianae (Menzies, 1962b)
Paraleptosphaeroma glynni Buss and
Iverson, 1981
Probopyrus pandalicola (Packard,
1879)
*Rocinela oculata Harger, 1883
*Rocinela signata Schioedte and
Meinert, 1879
Uromunna reynoldsi Frankenberg and
Menzies, 1966