ALBERT

Description: Whilst visiting the Leeward Group, little time could be spared to the collecting of mammals; from Odocoileus and Sylvilagus however, a rather representative series could be obtained. Regarding this, I must offer my grateful thanks and appreciation to the people who so ably and kindly assisted in securing the specimens. I am especially obliged to Mr. van der Linde Schotborgh for presenting me with a living Curaçoan deer and to Mr. de Wit for organizing our three shooting-parties, ending with the aquisition of the type of Odocoileus gymnotis curassavicus. Señorita Fanny Maneyro made me a present of a two days old fawn, on the occasion of a short visit to her uncles estate on the Peninsula de Araya. Little “Chacopato” was bottle-fed in my room in Porlamar, with the devoted assistance of Maximiliana, the hotel-owners step-daughter. This apartment he soon shared with an adult deer from Margarita, which however died a few months later. During this time the hotel-owner, Clémente Sibú, who was very fond of animals, overlooked many annoying things, which another would never have let pass. After my departure to Curaçao, “Chacopato” stayed in “Hotel Central”, where he was later joined by his two prospective wives “Guanta” and “Carúpana”, until our departure for the Netherlands. After being kindly entertained on board of the „Van Rensselaer”, they started family-life in the grounds of my parents country-house near The Hague.

Description: Some twenty-five years have passed since short descriptions were published of marine and saltpond habitats sampled in the Caribbean during three zoological collecting trips made by the author in 1930, 1936/37 and 1948/49 (these Studies, vol. 4, no. 17, 1953). Sampling of the shallow coastal waters of the Caribbean was continued in 1955, 1963/64, 1967, 1968, 1970 and 1973, during six visits the main purpose of which was not always the study of the marine fauna. Although collecting was done single-handed and rather incidentally, with no other equipment than a knife, fine-meshed nets, formaldehyde and alcohol, the material collected proved to be sufficiently valuable for scientific purposes to justify the publication of a list of the new marine localities. In this paper the descriptions of the “Marine Habitats”, published in 1953 (p. 56-58) are included, but those of the “Salt Pond Habitats” (p. 69-77) are only referred to.

Description: The small collection of tiger-beetles, belonging to the genus Megacephala, which is the subject of this paper, was incidentally made by the author during his visits to the Lesser Antilles in 1936-’37 and 1948-’49. The greater part of the material has been deposited at the “Zoologisch Museum” of Amsterdam and the “Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie” at Leiden. Some specimens (27 M. sobrina from Porlamar, Margarita, and Deenterra, Bonaire) were presented to the collections of the American Museum of Natural History, British Museum, Deutsches Entomologisches Institut, incl. Coll. Horn, Hope Department of Entomology at Oxford, The Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture in Trinidad, Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique at Brussel, United States National Museum, the Zoological Museum at Copenhagen, and the Zoologisches Museum der Humboldt Universität at Berlin, whose keepers kindly entrusted me with some material included in this study. The specimens presented by the U. S. Nat. Mus. were given to Amsterdam, those from the Amer. Mus. to Leiden.

Description: This publication deals with some agaves which were collected by me participating as biologist in a geological excursion under Prof. Dr. L. M. R. Rutten and Mrs. Dr. C. J. Rutten-Pekelharing, in the beginning of 1930, to the West Indies. From 14 April to 4 May we camped in the western part of Curaçao, from 10 May to 10 June Bonaire was visited and from 16 June to 9 July we passed through Aruba. In preference to the collection of a large number of different forms of Agave, an intensive investigation of the forms found on a few localities was made. I hoped thereby to acquire some information about the variability, and insight into the problem of the concept of species, not to be obtained by the study of herbarium material. — Other material was collected during an excursion to the mainland, following an invitation by the „Caribbean Petroleum Company”.

Description: A recent collecting trip extended the region to which these Studies originally referred in such a way that it seemed wise to change the original title, so that not only the arid area off the North coast of South America was indicated as the field of study. Although as yet these Studies are principally based on material collected by the editor on his three trips to the Caribbean, this volume proves that results obtained from material of different origin will be incorporated.

Description: A few localities in which collecting has been done in 1930 (cf. Zool. Jb. Syst. 64, 1933) are included without special numbering. A capital-letter after the station-number indicates a different habitat or a comparable habitat in another locality; an ordinary-letter indicates that the same habitat has already been studied before.

Description: When the author beheld the tranquility and the magnitude of a Caribbean mangrove-lagoon for the very first time, he was so much impressed by the wealth and the complexity of this habitat that he could not but devote his special attention to a number of simple Cassiopeas, lazily pulsating amidst the turtle-grass. Moreover these Bonairean animals challenged him to further research, because at first view, their appearance showed some striking differences from a description given some years before by STIASNY, with reference to Cassiopeas collected by VAN DER HORST on Curaçao. The result was a lengthy paper “Zur Kenntnis der Scyphomedusen-Gattung Cassiopea” (1933). The present article may be considered as a continuation, except for one thing; several subjects discussed in the first publication will here be omitted. Special attention, however, has been given to the number & shape of radial vessels, and to a few striking characteristics of oral arms & vesicles, which may be considered as being of supra-specific and infraspecific taxonomical value respectively. – Thanks are due to H. C. OBREEN (1958) and MIEKE GODERIE (1966) for their kind assistance within the scope of their student’s practical course in taxonomy.

Description: This survey of the scorpions of the Leeward Group is based on author’s collection and therefore includes some mainlandrecords from northern Venezuela and northeastern Colombia. Material from Curaçao, deposited in the “Zoölogisch Museum, Amsterdam” (A) and the “Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Leiden” (L) has been included, and the few island-records which were found in literature mentioned. Important new localities are indicated by an exclamation-mark. A description of the localities may be found in the 1st and the 4th paper of this series.

Description: In Curaçao, Aruba and Bonaire the most common species of Agave is A. vivipara. Although the variability is rather great, this species is nearly always easily recognizable. In Aruba, however, in two localities agaves are found, namely A. Rutteniae and A. arubensis, which differ from A. vivipara in their generative parts only. The A. Cocui, which occasionally occurs in Curaçao and Bonaire, but which has probably been introduced from the coast of Venezuela, differs from these species, both in shape and size. A. Boldinghiana, which is found here and there on alle three islands, is in herbarium material not always easily distinguished from the above named species, in the field it is always easily recognizable. A. Karatto, which is frequently cultivated as a living hedge in Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire, has very little in common with the other agaves growing there; this species occurs also in St. Eustatius and the neighbouring islands and it seems probable that it was introduced from there in former times, when there was a more lively trade between these islands. On the Venezuelan Continent there probably is only one species of Agave, A. Cocui, which, however, shows a wide range of variability in the form of the terminal spine. In Trinidad and Chacachacare A. evadens occurs; possibly it may be found on the neighbouring part of the continent as well. On the Venezuelan Islands, A. vivipara is known from Blanquilla and Los Hermanos, A. Cocui from Los Frailes and Los Testigos. The common agave of Margarita, which I determined as A. vivipara, resembles a special form of A. Cocui growing on the continental coast opposite. Although it seems not possible to differentiate them clearly, yet, for the time being, it does not seem advisable to unite these two species.

Description: The interest of the second author in the variability of Melongena melongena (L.) was aroused by the discovery of a population of dwarf specimens living in shallow tidal pools connected with the mangrove lagoon of Lac, Bonaire, in 1976 (see Figs 1-4). Further collecting resulted in bringing together a rather large number of recent and subrecent shells from various Caribbean localities which served as a base for the present study (see Appendix).