Aruba

The critically endangered Aruba Island Rattlesnake Crotalus unicolor (ARKive) is the country's most famous endemic. Aruba is also the sole home to two species of lizards: the Aruba Leaf-toed Gecko Phyllodactylus julieni (Observado.org) and the Aruba Whiptail Cnemidophorus arubensis (flickr).

Invertebrates unique to the island include the land snails Cerion arubanum (Cerion) and Thysanophora vanattai (Fig. 57 on p. 147 of Deep Blue pdf file), the longhorned beetle Urgleptes hummelincki (Lamiaires du Monde), a termite Amitermes amicki (FCLA pdf file), a wall crab spider Selenops arikok (Species-ID), a scorpion Centruroides simplex (p. 9 of Euscorpius pdf file), a pseudoscorpion Pachychernes corticalis (p. 3 of Zool. Med Leiden pdf file), and the freshwater isopod crustaceans Arubolana imula (fig. 2 on p. 5 of AToL Decapoda pdf file) and Stygocyathura hummelincki (Google Books). Among the marine molluscs known only from Aruban waters are the cone shells Seminoleconus curassaviensis (Eddie Hardy) and Gladioconus hieroglyphus (Eddie Hardy).

Plants unique to Aruba include a cactus Melocactus stramineus (cactus-succulents.com) and the agaves Agave rutteniae (Agavaceae.com) and Agave arubensis (Agavaceae.com).

Aruba is included in the Caribbean Islands biodiversity hotspot (CI) and is part of the Aruba-Curaçao-Bonaire Cactus Scrub ecoregion (EoE).