A Survey of the Earthworms of the Greater and Lesser Antilles

由于蚯蚓明显不能穿越咸水，因此它们很有希望成为交替事件的极好指示器。不幸的是，人们对加勒比海盆地的蚯蚓知之甚少，以至于无法用它们来检验任何生物地理假说。该项目旨在通过对大安的列斯群岛和一些小安的列斯群岛进行全面调查，部分纠正这一不足。Trigaster属组和中美洲属和安的列斯Notiodrilus属将根据将要收集的藏品进行修订。从调查中获得的数据将被用来检验蚯蚓没有扩散到小安的列斯群岛南部火山的假设。该项目将提供必要的分布和分类数据，以便开始研究有关加勒比盆地历史以及重要物种保护和生态问题的更大生物地理和地质问题。

Earthworms show promise of being excellent indicators of vicariance events, due to their apparent failure to cross salt water. Unfortunately, so little is known about earthworms in the Caribbean Basin that they cannot be used to test any biogeographical hypotheses. This project aims to partially correct that deficiency by conducting a complete survey of the Greater Antilles and some of the Lesser Antilles. The Trigaster group of genera and the Central American and Antillean Notiodrilus will be revised based on the collections to be made. Data derived from the survey will be used to test the hypothesis that earthworms have not dispersed to the volcanic southern Lesser Antilles. This project will provide the distributional and taxonomic data necessary to begin work on larger biogeographical and geological questions about Caribbean Basin history, as well as on important species conservation and ecological concerns.