Language: English
A checklist of the recent non-marine ostracods of South American inland waters, based on extant literature, is presented. 260 species in 53 genera are reported in c. 130 papers. About 20% of the genera and c. 85% of the species appear to be endemic to this continent. Five species and one genus are here formally synonymized and 24 species are transferred to another genus. Three new names are proposed for junior homonymes.
Especially the fauna of the West Indies and of pans of Brasil appear to be fairly well known. Most parts of South America, however, remain terra incognita with regard to their ostracod fauna and the number of species presently reported constitutes only a fraction of the ostracod diversity that can be expected. On the other hand, various nominal taxa, especially in large genera such as Chlamydotheca and Strandesia s.l., will eventually turn out to be synonyms.