Amsterdam Expeditions to the West Indian Islands, Report 25. The genus Hemicypris (Crustacea, Ostracoda) in the West Indies

A worldwide list of species that have to be assigned to the genus Hemicypris is given. H. exigua n. sp. and H. barbadensis n. sp. are described. A redescription is given of H. reticulata (Klie, 1930), a species from Paraguay, which was also encountered in the Antillean islands. Descriptions of chaetotaxy are made according to the system of Broodbakker & Danielopol (1982). The morphology of the limbs of the three species is similar to that of the species of the genus Heterocypris encountered in the West Indies. Like in the genus Heterocypris, a considerable amount of variation in mean carapace length is found. The relative length of some setae seems to be fairly constant within, and characteristic of, each species. Some remarks are made on the ecology and the zoogeography of the three species.