Checklist of the fishes of New Caledonia, and their distribution in the ...

450 STUTTGARTER BEITRÄGE ZUR NATURKUNDE A Neue Serie 4groups, the freshwater fish fauna is dominated by the familiesGobiidae, Eleotridae, Anguillidae and Mugilidae; themost speciate marine fish groups are the Gobiidae, Labridae,and Pomacentridae. A total of 61 fish species are recordedfrom New Caledonia for the first time.The fish fauna of New Caledonia includes a total of 125species occurring in freshwater (plus 8 introduced species,6.4 % of the total freshwater fish species), 266 speciesof transitional waters (plus two introduced species,0.8 % of the total transitional water species) and 2320 speciesin marine habitats. Freshwater and transitional waterspecies are found almost exclusively in the Grande TerreGroup, as there are no open fresh water habitats in the outerislands.Among the marine species, 905 species are recordedfrom islands and reefs of the East Coral Sea (includingChesterfield Islands) (39.1 % of the total marine species),193 pelagic and deepsea species are known from theNew Caledonian basin (8.3 % of the total marine species),1860 species from the Grande Terre Group (80.3 % of thetotal marine species), 85 species from the Norfolk Ridge(3.7 % of the total marine species), and 1029 species fromthe Loyalty Ridge including Loyalty Islands (42.3 % of thetotal marine species). The Grande Terre Group includesmany species living otherwise along continental shelves,which prefer nutrient rich waters. In the Loyalty Islands,several species restricted to oceanic islands including socalled‘Pacific Plate species’ are found; such species requiremarine habitats with few nutrients. Many of the latterspecies, especially in deeper water, are small.It is difficult to compare the faunas of nearby regionsas the sampling effort is very heterogeneous from one regionto the next. Restricting the comparison to the coastalspecies (marine species, found in less than 80 m excludingoceanic pelagic species) there is a very high similarityin the ranking of the various families (Tab. 1). The onlyexception being the Northern New Zealand Region whichis at the limit of the tropical waters and therefore has lessspecies and is influenced by the occurrence of colder waters.There are also several important families which arenot represented or weakly represented in New Caledoniacompared to the western and northern regions (GreatBarrier Reef, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands).In particular there are no Ariidae or Sciaenidae in NewCaledonia and families such as Platycephalidae, Soleidae,Sillaginidae, Syngnathidae, Siganidae, Pseudochromidae,Chaetodontidae and Hemiramphidae have less species thanin the west and north. On the contrary, several families areTab. 1. Proportion (percent of total) and rank (in parentheses) of the 20 most speciose families of shore fishes in the southwesternPacific. Only “shore” species are included, i. e. species which are marine, live in less than 80 m depth and are not found as adults inthe oceanic pelagic waters.NewCaledoniaVanuatuGreatBarrier ReefPapua NewGuineaSolomonIslandsNorthernNewZealandGobiidae 11.9 (1) 9.5 (1) 10.4 (1) 10.4 (1) 11.7 (1) 6.3 (2) 11.6 (1) 11.2 (1)Labridae 7.2 (2) 8.5 (2) 6.5 (2) 6 (2) 6.4 (3) 12.5 (1) 6.9 (2) 7.9 (2)Pomacentridae 5.8 (3) 8.1 (3) 5.3 (3) 5.5 (3) 7.2 (2) 6.3 (2) 5.6 (3) 7.1 (3)Apogonidae 4.9 (4) 4.4 (6) 3.9 (5) 5.3 (4) 5.9 (4) 2.6 (10) 5 (4) 5.2 (5)Serranidae 4.7 (5) 5.2 (4) 4.3 (4) 4.1 (5) 4.4 (6) 4.9 (4) 4.7 (5) 4.6 (6)Blenniidae 4 (7) 4.5 (5) 3.1 (6) 3.6 (6) 4.7 (5) 4.3 (5) 4.5 (6) 5.4 (4)Muraenidae 4.4 (6) 3.4 (7) 2.2 (10) 2.3 (10) 2.3 (10) 2.9 (9) 3.4 (7) 3.9 (7)Carangidae 2.1 (10) 2.8 (9) 3 (7) 2.4 (8) 3 (7) 2.5 (11) 2.9 (8) 2.9 (10)Syngnathidae 2.4 (9) 1.9 (15) 2.9 (8) 2.7 (7) 2.5 (8) 1.2 (19) 2.8 (9) 1.9 (15)Chaetodontidae 1.7 (12) 2.6 (10) 2.1 (11) 2.1 (11) 2.4 (9) 4 (6) 2.3 (11) 3.1 (8)Scorpaenidae 3.1 (8) 2 (14) 2.2 (9) 2.3 (9) 1.9 (13) 2.3 (12) 2.5 (10) 1.5 (16)Acanthuridae 2.1 (11) 2.9 (8) 1.8 (12) 1.6 (13) 2.2 (11) 3.5 (7) 2.2 (12) 3.1 (8)Lutjanidae 1.5 (17) 2.6 (10) 1.4 (16) 1.7 (12) 2.1 (12) 1.4 (18) 2.2 (12) 2.1 (13)Scaridae 1.5 (14) 2.2 (13) 1.4 (16) 1.3 (18) 1.5 (15) 3.2 (8) 1.7 (16) 2.6 (11)Holocentridae 1.5 (14) 1.9 (15) 1.2 (19) 1.3 (18) 1.7 (14) 1.1 (21) 1.9 (15) 2.5 (12)Tripterygiidae 1.6 (13) 2.6 (12) 1.5 (15) 1.5 (14) 1.3 (17) 0.8 (25) 1.3 (21) 2.1 (13)Tetraodontidae 1.5 (14) 1.3 (20) 1.5 (14) 1.4 (15) 1.1 (20) 1.8 (14) 1.4 (18) 1.4 (17)Ophichthidae 1.3 (18) 1 (22) 1.2 (19) 1 (25) 1 (23) 1.6 (15) 2.1 (14) 1.4 (20)Pomacanthidae 1.1 (22) 1.7 (17) 1.2 (23) 1.1 (23) 1.4 (16) 1.6 (15) 1.4 (18) 1 (23)Lethrinidae 1.2 (20) 1.5 (18) 1.1 (24) 1.1 (22) 1.1 (21) 0.9 (22) 1.6 (17) 1.4 (20)Total numberof species1851 1306 2161 2298 1757 710 1462 1067FijiTonga