INTRODUCTION 



The terrestrial reptile fauna of Cuba consists of 106 species 

 described to date, of which 55 (51.8%) belong to the family 

 Iguanidae. The family Iguanidae contains a total of 125 taxa, 

 including subspecies. 



Frost and Etheridge (1989, Misc. Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist., Univ. 

 Kansas 81:1-65) recommended that the eight generic groups of the 

 family Iguanidae be recognized as distinct families. However, 

 for the present review, I prefer to consider the Cuban species as 

 one group in order to keep the information together. 



In Cuba, the iguanids occur in many different terrestrial 

 habitats from the coastal zones to the highest elevations in 

 mountains, in natural, agricultural, and urban areas. However, 

 forest of diverse types shelter the majority of the species 

 (80%). All ecomorphs described by Williams (1983, pp. 326-370 In 

 Harvard University Press, Cambridge) are represented, although 

 the trunk-ecomorphs are the most frequents (67.3%). Only five 

 species are not Cuban endemics; 12, 25, and 13 species are 

 national, regional and local endemics, respectively. 



The bibliography of the Cuban iguanids deals, in a great 

 part, with taxonomy and geographical distribution. There are 

 many papers in which the species of a given region are listed and 

 some data about their habitats are presented. In another group 

 of studies, several ecological aspects at the population or 

 community level are presented and in a very few, a 

 zoogeographical approach of the group is found. 



Lists and catalogues are scarce. On the other hand, in the 

 more recent ones (Garrido and Jaume, 1984; Schwartz and 

 Henderson, 1988) , the species are presented in alphabetical 

 order, which makes it difficult to recognize their taxonomic 

 affinities and five taxa have been described since the 

 publication fo the Schwartz and Henderson catalogue. 



The present checklist contains the 12 5 taxa described up to 

 1991 from Cuba, and the bibliography encompasses all the 

 references that I have found referring to about any aspect of 

 Cuban iguanids, whether formally published or presented at 

 symposia or as a theses. 



