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Morphological and allozyme studies have recently clarified distribution and diversity in the genus Lepidophthalmus.This obligate fossorial taxon dominates the infaunal assemblage in many intertidal estuarine settings and exhibits abbreviated larval development with limited potential for dispersal.In the western Atlantic, recent work has added markedly to our understanding of endemization in the genus and led to recent descriptions of new species from Brazil, Belize and the Caribbean coast of Colombia.Two more formerly undescribed forms are herewith reported from the western Gulf of Mexico.In the eastern Pacific, the separationn of L.bocourti and L.eiseni has been re-established, while an additional species was recently described from estuarine habitats of western Colombia.Two more formerly undescribed Pacific coast forms are herewith described from Panama and Colombia respectively.Distribution in the group appears to reflect restriction to estuaries in which clayey substrates can be accessed and utilized during burrow wall construction.Antitropical distributions of the more closely related species pairs suggests postglacial dispersals of ancestral populations