2 ALLAN HANCOCK ATLANTIC EXPEDITION REPORT 



reported bring the total number of species to 24, about two-thirds of 

 the number of species now known from the entire western Atlantic. 

 Manning (1959) reported only 19 species from the Gulf of Mexico, 

 an area that has had much more intensive collecting than South America. 

 The geographic relationship of the 24 species from northern South 

 America is summarized in Table 1, and the close ties of this fauna to 

 that of the Caribbean Sea in general and the Gulf of Mexico can easily 

 be seen. It is not surprising that the stomatopod fauna decreases sharply 

 south of Recife, on the eastern coast of Brazil, for stomatopods are 

 characteristically tropical and sub-tropical organisms; a similar de- | 

 crease in species is encountered to the north, where the stomatopod 

 fauna drops ofif sharply north of Florida. 



Table 1. 



Numbers of species of stomatopods from Northern South 

 America also occurring in other areas. Data, in part, from 

 Lemos de Castro (1955), Manning (1959), and Schmitt 

 (1940). 



Although only three species are shared by the eastern Pacific region 

 and northern South America, this is not really indicative of the close 

 relationship of the stomatopods of the two areas. There are at least 16 

 pairs of analagous species on either side of the isthmus of Panama 

 (Table 2). Complete comparisons of these faunas would be highly de- 

 sirable. 



