Annotated Bibliography to the Harvestmen of the West Indies

Biologists often find it is extremely difficult to identify invertebrate specimens collected in the Trop­ ics. This is primarily because many groups have not been monographed or revised. Often the available literature is outdated or difficult to locate. The lack of practicing taxonomists forces some ecologists and behaviorists to attempt identifications. In some groups of invertebrates–from the Tropics, like the Opiliones, even the taxonomists are bewildered by the maze of literature and species descriptions. Although some papers may deal specifically with the West Indian fauna, more often species-descriptions are part of a larger taxonomic treatment published in a foreign land and language. These descriptions are sometimes overlooked and the species will be de­ scribed a second time by a second author. In the opilionids these doubled descriptions are not often obvious because the species will be described in different genera. Although thorough generic revi­sions are badly needed, much useful information can be obtained from the study of opilionids at all levels in the West Indies:-Little is published on the natural history or distribution of any West Indian harvest­ men species.