"The stomatopod fauna of the western Atlantic is far richer in number of species than previously believed. Sixty-two species, representing 18 genera and four families, are described and illustrated. Twenty-eight species have been added to the western Atlantic fauna, including 24 species described as a result of this study. Ten new species and one new subspecies are described in this report, and four other species, previously unrecorded from the area, are recognized. Complete synonymies are presented, along with keys to American genera and western Atlantic species. The western Atlantic stomatopods show closest affinities with the faunas of the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific areas. Five Indo-West Pacific species also occur in the study area: Pseudosquilla ciliata (Fabricius), P. oculata (Brullé), Alima hyalina Leach, A. hieroglyphica (Kemp), and Odontodactylus brevirostris (Miers). These are the most widely distributed stomatopods; the species of Alima and Odontodactylus have been recorded from scattered localities between Hawaii, the Indian Ocean, and the Atlantic. All but O. brevirostris occur in the eastern Atlantic, but none occurs in the eastern Pacific. Heterosquilla mccullochae (Schmitt), previously known from the Gulf of California, is recorded from Florida and the Virgin Islands. Numerous other eastern Pacific species have closely related but distinct analogues in the western Atlantic"--p. 1.