Historical Biogeography of Poeciliid Fishes in the Caribbean

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Abstract
The biogeographic patterns exhibited by freshwater fishes in the Greater Antilles are examined. These twelve groups of fishes (gars of the genus Atractosteus, synbranchid eels of the genus Ophisternon, cichlids of the genus Cichlasoma, cyprinodontiforms of the genera Cyprinodon, Cubanichthys, and Rivulus, and poeciliids of the tribe Girardiini, the subgenera Limia and Poecilia of the genus Poecilia, and the nicaraguensis, puncticulata, and punctata species groups of the genus Gambusia) all belong to Myer''s (1938) secondary division, which he felt was uninformative for historical biogeography. Cladograms are presented for each group, largely taken from the literature. Many are poorly resolved, and several become only two-area statements when converted into area cladograms; however, a composite area cladogram, derived from the resolved areas of the individual area cladograms, proposes a hypothesis of area relationships in the Greater Antilles that all freshwater fish cladograms are consistent with, although this composite area cladogram, because of the lack of resolution in many of the individual area cladograms, is not robust to some statistical tests. This hypothesis predicts: 1. that neither Cuba nor Hispaniola are single areas of endemism, Cuba being divisible into western and eastern portions and Hispaniola into southwestern and central portions; 2. that western Cuba (including the Isla de la Juventud), the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, and southwestern Hispaniola form a monophyletic group; 3. that eastern Cuba is related to the Bahamas and central Hispaniola; and 4. that these two island groups together form a group, which is most closely related to Nuclear Central America (Yucatan, Guatemala, and Belize). Geological evidence (summarized by Rosen, 1985) also supports these predictions, but it is emphasized that better systematic input, in the form of more resolved, more highly corroborated area cladograms, will provide a more critical test of this hypothesis.