Introduction 



The Cuban terrestrial reptile fauna is composed of 120 known species, of which 97 species are 

 endemic (80.8%). Cuban reptiles occur throughout the country, not only in all natural vegetation 

 types but also in urban and agricultural places. They eat many invertebrates and are the prey for 

 other vertebrates. For these reasons, reptiles play an important role in the food webs of Cuban 

 ecosystems and must be well understood in order to ensure their correct management and 

 conservation. 



Since the publication of the most recent checklist of the West Indian herpetofauna (Powell et ai, 

 1996), several new Cuban reptiles have been described (Diaz et al., 1996; Perez-Beato, 1996-1997; 

 Thomas and Hedges, 1998a, b; Thomas et al., 1998) and some subspecies have been elevated to 

 species (Thomas and Hedges, 1998a, b). As Powell et al. (1996) stated, no previous list had 

 provided complete citations of the original descriptions of species. They provided a full list to the 

 species level. Nevertheless, the subspecies level is often useful for understanding variation within 

 species. Consequently, I give here a hst with complete citations for all Cuban terrestrial reptiles 

 described up to 1998, including the recognized species and subspecies. 



For each taxon I report: A) the correct name in use with author and date; B) the complete citation of 

 the original description; C) the page number for the name, between parentheses; D) the holotype or 

 syntypes; and E) the geographic range within Cuba. The generic names Chamaeleolis and Cadea 

 are maintained here despite the opinions of Hass et al. (1993) and Hedges (1996), respectively, 

 because I believe that both have enough diagnostic characters for maintaining their taxonomic status 

 and recognizing them as genera. 



The abbreviations used are as follows: AMNH, American Museum of Natural History, New York; 

 ANSP, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia; BMNH, British Museum (Natural History), 

 London; BYU, Brigham Young University, Provo; CARE, Coleccion de Alberto R. Estrada; CAS- 

 SU, Stanford University (in the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco); CM, Carnegie 

 Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh; ChM, Charleston Museum, Charleston; CZACC, 

 Colecciones Zoologicas, Instituto de Ecologfa y Sistematica, La Habana; HZM, Universitat 

 Hamburg, Zoologische Museum, Hamburg; IZ, Instituto de Zoologia, La Habana; MCTH, Museo 

 Carlos de la Torre y Huerta, Holguin, Cuba; MCZ, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard 

 University, Cambridge; MNHN, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris; MNHNCU, Museo 

 Nacional de Historia Natural de Cuba, La Habana; UTMNH, University of Dlinois, Museum of 

 Natural History, Urbana; UMMZ, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; 

 USNM, National Museum of Natural History, Washington; UZM, Universitets Zoologiske 

 Museum, Kj0benhavn; ZMB, Museum fur Naturkunde, Humboldt-Universitat, Berlin. 



I thank Kevin de Queiroz for his help in acquiring some of the papers cited here. Also, Kevin de 

 Queiroz, Vilma Rivalta, Ada Chamizo, Luis F. de Armas, and Luis V. Moreno for their useful 

 comments on the manuscript. 



