This Catalog is a tribute to Dr. Gilberto Rodríguez (1929–2004), a distinguished Venezuelan carcinologist, pioneer in marine biology research in Venezuela, and founder of the Center for Ecology at the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC) in Caracas in 1970. This series is a modern and expanded update to Rodríguez’s original work, Los Crustáceos Decápodos de Venezuela (1980). Drawing upon authoritative sources such as the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), we compiled a comprehensive list of marine and estuarine decapod species reported in the region. As the project evolved, we determined that expanding the geographic scope to encompass the entire Tropical Northwestern Atlantic would provide broader scientific value. Consequently, this Catalog is structured as a series of six volumes, available in eBook format, allowing for future revisions as new taxonomic or distributional data becomes available.
