Springtails (Arthropoda, Collembola) from Greater Puerto Rico: species list and distribution

The Collembola fauna of Puerto Rico is reasonably well known, but many recent reports are scattered in published literature and unpublished theses. Here we present a summary of all springtail species identified from the Bank of Puerto Rico since 1927 and 2011. This includes new, previously unpublished records. In the present review we list 119 species in 59 genera and 17 families. Most species (37) belong in family Entomobryidae, but this reflects the taxonomic expertise of specialists working in Puerto Rico rather than a real bias in the distribution of higher taxa in the islands. In addition to the new reports, these data provide information on the distribution of the species outside the island bank. This current list of species is an update to original species lists from Puerto Rico (Mari Mutt 1982 and Thibaud 2014). In addition to the list of species, we make available a data set that includes a catalog of species, their habitats, historical reports and distribution maps on Greater Puerto Rico.
The purpose of this dataset is to synthesize knowledge about the occurrence and distribution of the springtail fauna of Greater Puerto Rico (i.e., Puerto Rico, Vieques, Culebra, Mona), and to make it available online to the general scientific community.
The present contribution updates the original species lists from Puerto Rico published by Mari Mutt (1982) and Thibaud (2014) from the Antilles. Mari Mutt (1982) reported 59 species in 39 genera and provided notes on the geographic distribution of each species according to global biogeographic zones. Thibaud (2014) presented a complete history of Collembola studies in Puerto Rico and an update, which included 74 species and their general geographic distribution. These data were published on 11/01/2019. Minor metadata updates were made on 05/15/2024.