Pacific Plate Biogeography, with Special Reference to Shorefishes

NUMBER 367 23
OBRUNNEOLUS
•FLAVIPES
• KRAUSSI
•PETERSI
FIGURE 10.—Distributions of the five species of the blenniid fish genus Enchelyurus.
and ranges from the east coast of Africa to the
Bismarck Archipelago and Solomon Islands on
the margin of the Pacific Plate (Springer, 1972b,
1981b).
Omox, a mangrove inhabitant, contains two
species (Springer, 1981b) and ranges from the
South China Sea to Palau, and the Bismarck
Archipelago, and is known nonmarginally on the
Pacific Plate only from Ponape (O. biporos), which
provides evidence favoring operation of the Caroline
Islands conduit.
Haptogenys is monotypic (Springer, 1972b), an
estuarine inhabitant, and is known only from
Calicut, India, and Thailand (Springer and Gomon,
1975).
Phenablenniini: This tribe is monotypic
{Phenablennius hyeligeri) and restricted to freshwater
and estuaries in Borneo, Sumatra, and Cambodia
(Springer and Smith-Vaniz, 1972; Smith-
Vaniz, 1975).
Nemophini: This tribe was monographed by
Smith-Vaniz (1976), who provided distribution
maps for all included taxa. Most of the information
I report on the Nemophini is derived from
his study.
Aspidontus comprises two free-swimming, coralreef
species, and both range from the east coast of
Africa to at least the Society Islands.
Meiacanthus comprises 16 species, all but one of
which occur in coral-reef areas; the exception is
M. anema, which inhabits freshwater streams and
estuaries. The species are often free swimming,
just above the substrate, but most reside in worm
tubes. Only one species, M. atrodorsalis, is known
unequivocally to occur on the Pacific Plate nonmarginally
(Figure 11), a situation comparable to
that described above for Omobranchus (Figure 9).
Smith-Vaniz questioned the Tahitian locality accorded
a specimen of M. procne, which is otherwise
known only from the northern Tonga Islands,
collected in 1931 by Zane Grey, a novelist and
game fisherman (see also Chaetodon plebeius, family
Chaetodontidae, for another questionable Zane
Grey locality).
I have seen three species of Meiacanthus (M.
atrodorsalis, M. grammistes, and M. vittatus) swimming
together on the same coral reef in the
vicinity of Port Moresby, Papua-New Guinea.
Meiacanthus atrodorsalis was the least common of
the three species. I would expect that M. grammistes,
which ranges over much of the western
Pacific (Okinawa south to Australia, and Marianas),
would be a successful colonizer of the
Pacific Plate if it were able to disperse to the
Plate.
Petroscirtes comprises 10 species, most of which
are benthic and occur around vegetation; however,
P. fallax, which mimics Meiacanthus lineatus,
swims freely in the water column. Petroscirtes lupus
uses dead mollusk shells as nests. Its larvae, based