This is a VERY complicated question. The short answer is not very many... and I see where you are going with that.

The slightly longer (but not gonna write a book about it) answer is that it depends on what you consider the "everglades" to be. The national park is merely a political boundary. Some people refer to the greater everglades as Lake O and everything south. Others include the chain of lakes along the Lake Whales Ridge. Are we going to include the keys since there are burms there and that is the point of this discussion?

Are we talking about full species only or are we including subspecies (some people have mentioned a few ssp. and that's why I ask)?

The peninsular effect really limits diversity down here at the species level but at the subspecific level we have a boat load of "endemics." Plenty of herp species have a keys ssp. or a south FL ssp.

Anyway, I totally get what you're saying. I'm just throwing all that out there for fun.

Mike

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