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Nils Rosén 



Florida, but from Cuba or Haiti. To Florida the species has probably been trans- 

 ferred from Cuba. All the other species have their distribution in the West Indies, 

 on Cuba or Haiti. It is evident from this that all the non-endemic reptiles have 

 reached the Bahamas from Cuba or Haiti. Only one of these species, Anolis por- 

 catus, has an allied form in Florida, namely A. caroUnensis, but the derivation must 

 in this case have gone from porcatiis to carolinensis and not in the contrary direc- 

 tion. 01' the 18 endemic species there is no one whose closely allied form is to 

 be found in Florida. All are West Indian. 



Whether Cuba or Haiti has played the greatest part in forming the Bahama 

 reptile fauna or whether, perhaps, the whole fauna is derived from only one of these 

 islands, it is, I think, imposible to say with the present knowledge of the distribu- 

 tion of many species in the different islands. Almost all the southern islands are 

 too unsufficently explored from this point of view to give an exact answer on this 

 question. Stejneger (18) tried to show that all the species which were 

 allied to Cuba were distributed on islands situated on the Great Bahama Bank, 

 those allied, or identical with, Haitian forms restricted to Inagua and other southern 

 islands. The reptile fauna would then include forms of two different origins. I 

 think this question cannot be settled yet. Still 1 will give a review of the alliances 

 with Cuba and Haiti. There are tm) species, which though West Indian or Central 

 American forms, do not occur either in Cuba or Haiti, Ti/phlo2JS tenuis and Glauconia 

 alhifrons; thus they cannot be taken into consideration. The same is the case with 

 Sphaerodadylus notatus and Typhlops lumhricalis, which occur both in Cuba and 

 Haiti and the endemic species Sph. corticolus which is allied to Sph. nofatus. The 

 alliances of some species are not sufficiently known. Of other species the following 

 five occur in Cuba (but not in Haiti) : Anolis sagrae, A. porcatus, Liocephalus cari- 

 natus, Cyclura carinata and Ungalia pardalis. Allied to Cuban forms are Liocephalus 

 virescens (to L. carinatus), Cyclura hueolopha (to C. carinata), Ungalia cana (to U. 

 pardalis), Dromicus angulifer var. vudii (to D. angidifer). Species common for the 

 Bahamas and Haiti ^(but not in Cuba) are Anolis distichus, to which the endemic 

 form A. distichoides is alhed, Liocephalus schreibersi and Epicrates sfriatus. Other 

 species are closely allied to Haitian forms, namely Sphacrodacfylus asper (to Sph. 

 picturatus), Liocephalus loxogrammus (to L. maeropus), Epicrates chrysogaster (to E. 

 fordii). It seems as if the relation with Cuba was greater than that with Haiti, 

 but that may be due to the circumstance that the islands which are situated near 

 Cuba, have been better explored than those near Haiti. 



From what has been shown above, it is evident that the reptile fauna 

 of the Bahamas is derived solely from that of Cuba and Haiti. 

 No species has invaded the archipelago from Florida. The isola- 

 tion of the islands has given rise to a specialisation of the 

 forms, three-fifth of the reptilefauna being endemic. 



