Talk:List of endemic fauna of Puerto Rico

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[edit] Endemic to where?

Are these only endemics to Puerto Rico proper (Puerto Rico and offshore islands) or the Puerto Rican Bank (Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands)? I would favour the latter, since it's a realistic biogeographic unit...which might also argue for renaming it List of endemic fauna of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands or List of endemic fauna of the Puerto Rican Bank. Guettarda 16:15, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

As it stands these are endemics to Puerto Rico and its islands. Although including the Virgin Islands would represent the typical biogeographic unit sadly my references do not extend as far. I think your proposal is a good idea. Does it include all Virgin Islands or only U.S. Virgin Islands ? Joelito 16:19, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

All of them. Since they were all linked during the Pleistocene, there are a lot of species that are endemic to the whole bank. What confuses matters more is that sources tend to use the terms interchangeably - for example, I have read that all Sphaerodactylus geckos are endemic to Puerto Rico, and I have also read that they are endemic to the Puerto Rican Bank. Ebert & Little and Little and Wadsworth cover PR & the VI, and use the term "endemic" to cover the entire area. Since they are the main reference on trees, it can be confusing. On the other hand, Liogier only covers PR and offshore islands, so his usage of endemic is different (which reminds me that I have to go to the library and have a look at Acevedo's "Monocots and Gymnosperms").

Outside of the Gekkonids, expanding to the VI would add another Cychlura (which, incidentally, is extinct in PR). Not sure what else.

And to add the really difficult question - when are you going to add the inverts ;) - Guettarda 16:41, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

I believe both accounts on Sphaerodactylus are wrong since this genus is, and correct me if I'm wrong, endemic to the Caribbean not Puerto Rico or the VI exclusively. As far as endemic flora that's a topic on which I have not done research yet (which explains why List of endemic flora of Puerto Rico has only a few entries). I think we should decide on a clear definition of endemic which would remove ambiguity from the article. The inverts are a work in process which I may never accomplish since I don't have any idea who the main reference is. Joelito 18:17, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Spider merge

Given the length this page is likely to get once all the invert taxa are included, I think that it might be best to maintain the list of spiders separate from this list - retain the current header of the spider section, state that there are X spiders in Y families, and then add a {{main|List of endemic spiders of Puerto Rico}}. Guettarda 20:21, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

What if we removed the family headers in the spider section? I really wouldn't mind a long list as long as everything is found in a single list. Joelito (talk) 21:00, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

I removed the headers. but when i see the two insects and single tick, i'm almost positive there should be some more :) so i guess linking to external lists is probably in the long run the best way to do it. i only merged the spiders into this list because somebody asked me to do it. cheers --Sarefo 23:34, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Do you have access to sources on ticks and insects? Guettarda 05:30, 24 November 2006 (UTC)