Abstract
The representatives of the genus Oosternum Sharp, 1882 occurring in the West Indies are revised. Ten species are recorded, of which seven are here described as new: Oosternum andersoni sp. n. (Cuba), O. bacharenge sp. n. (Dominican Republic), O. cercyonoides sp. n. (Jamaica), O. insulare sp. n. (Jamaica), O. luciae sp. n. (Saint Lucia), O. megnai sp. n. (Cuba) and O. pecki sp. n. (Dominican Republic).
Diagnoses and detailed distributional data are also provided for O. sharpi Hansen, 1999 (widespread throughout both Greater and Lesser Antilles), O. latum Fikacek, Hebauer & Hansen, 2009 (endemic to St. Vincent) and an undescribed species from the Bahamas.
A key to the West Indian Oosternum is provided and important diagnostic characters are illustrated. The West Indian fauna of Oosternum contains representatives of five different species groups and likely originated by multiple independent colonizations from the American continent.
Within the study region, the highest diversity is known from the Greater Antilles, where two endemic species each in Cuba, Jamaica, and Hispaniola. The populations of O. sharpi were found to consist exclusively of females on all islands with the exception Puerto Rico.