Leeuwen, S. van

A review is given of the terrestrial malacofauna of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao in the Dutch Caribbean. The most recent reviews of these islands were given in 1924 by Baker and in 1940 by Wagenaar Hummelinck. Wagenaar Hummelinck accepted fewer species and subspecies than Baker, without giving any arguments. Baker did give a detailed account making it possible to recognize his taxa in the field. Genetic research by Harasewych in 2015 supported Baker’s views with regard to the genus Cerion. Figures are provided for most taxa so each can be identified. Helicina dysoni L. Pfeiffer, 1849, Leptinaria lamellata (Potiez & Michaud, 1835), and Polygyra cereolus (Megerle von Mühlfeldt, 1816) are reported here for the first time, Guppya molengraaffi Baker, 1924 has been rediscovered.

The ANEMOON Foundation is a Dutch volunteer organization of citizen scientists who are interested in sea life. The Foundation has started a project to make an inventory of the underwater life of St. Eustatius, using citizen scientists as recorders. In 2015, an excellent start was made by the St. Eustatius Marine Biodiversity Expedition 2015. During this expedition, the ANEMOON Foundation, together with Naturalis Biodiversity Center (of Leiden in the Netherlands), and some local partners on St. Eustatius, surveyed the underwater life of the Marine Park. In three weeks, over 1,150 different species of plants and animals were observed.

This news article was published in BioNews 2-2017.

BioNews is produced by the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance and funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

This guide is intended to give an overview of the diversity of the marine life of St. Eustatus. But to show and describe all the species living in the waters around Statiaa is impossible; in 2016, the known total was already over a thousand, and many more species remain to be observed and recorded. It is even likely that there are several species left to be discovered which are as yet unknown to science.

In this guide we have listed many of the island’s common and characteristic marine animals and plants. To showcase the uniqueness of the marine life of the island, we have included some species that are found nowhere else, or are found only in this part of the Lesser Antilles. In addition, some species are included which are easily found around St. Eusta us, but which are rarely seen elsewhere in the West Indies.

Together these beautiful and strange creatures illustrate the surprising diversity of Statia’s surrounding waters, hidden treasures that await anyone who wishes to search for them.

We hope this field guide will encouraged you to explore the amazing marine life of St. Eusta us. 

Molluscs are one of the largest phyla in the animal kingdom. They make up a large part of marine faunas worldwide (Appeltans et al. 2012), and have a considerable presence on land and in freshwater. During the Statia Marine Expedition 2015, we hoped to contribute significantly to expanding the understanding of the molluscan fauna of the Dutch Caribbean island of St. Eustatius. The main goal of the present research was to produce an inventory of the fauna, with the primary emphasis being marine molluscs. Another major goal of the investigation was obtaining DNA subsamples of soft tissue from live individuals of a number of marine mollusc species. This will enable subsequent molecular analysis and DNA barcoding.

The malacofauna of St. Eustatius had been investigated to some extent before the 2015 expedition. Coomans (1958) listed 40 marine gastropods and Kaas (1972) reported on eight polyplacophorans based on material collected by Wagenaar Hummelinck in 1949 (Wagenaar Hummelinck 1977). Hewitt (2015) recorded 183 marine mollusc species based on her own collections and those of others from 2000 to 2011. In addition, 15 species of terrestrial gastropods were reported by Vernhout (1914), Haas (1960, 1962), Hovestadt (1980), and Van der Valk (1987).

In the 2015 survey, we attempted to find as many mollusc species as possible from each field station. The voucher material (marine and non-marine) consists of dry specimens (shells) and alcohol- preserved material. This material will be deposited in the reference collection of Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden. 

This article was published in the following report:

MARINE BIODIVERSITY SURVEY OF ST. EUSTATIUS, DUTCH CARIBBEAN 2015 by Naturalis Biodiversity Center and the Netherlands ANEMOON Foundation

Summary.
 
Based on the literature and own observations a checklist is provided with 27 species of land- and freshwater snails that may occur on Saba, a Dutch island in the Lesser Antilles. Nine species are recorded for the first time from Saba.