Amsterdam Expeditions to the West Indian Islands, Report 18. Stygobiont Crustacea Malacostraca from geologically older and younger Antillean Islands: a biogeographic analysis

Area-species graphs for stygobiont Crustacea Malacostraca of seven islands in the southern Caribbean have been compared. It appears that the “constants” C and z of these graphs are influenced by the geological time elapsed since the island’s emergence. In older islands the values for C and z are higher than in younger islands. The values for z of younger and older islands are much higher (0.79-0.97) than usually obtained in literature for terrestrial animals (0.20-0.40). This may be explained by the very limited dispersal faculties of K-strategists, such as stygobiont Malacostraca.