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

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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
FRICKE ET ALII, CHECKLIST OF FISHES OF NEW CALEDONIA 451well represented, Balistidae, Muraenidae and Scorpaenidaehave more species than in any other country in thesouthwestern Pacific.New Caledonia has a considerable endemic element of107 species known to date (4.6 % of the total native species).Among the known endemic species, 47 occur at theGrande Terre Group (43.9 % of the total endemic species),18 in the eastern Coral Sea (16.8 %), 6 on the LoyaltyRidge (5.6 %), and 11 on the Norfolk Ridge (10.3 %). Theremaining endemic species occur in more than one subregion.The high number of Grande Terre Group endemicsis correlated with an old geological age and a long isolationof that group (separated since 68 million years, see FRICKE1997: 49). Due to the high percentage of endemic species,New Caledonia is considered as an endemism centre.Endemic species are distributed amongst 41 families.However only six families have five or more endemic species(Tab. 2). The proportion of endemic species also displaysan unusual pattern. The highest proportions are foundamong bottom dwelling species, especially flatfishes andCallionymidae. Most endemic species are small (some lessthan 15 cm standard length, most even less than 10 cm),with some exceptions among the Chondrichtyans. Manyimportant families such as the Pomacentridae, Muraenidae,Scorpaenidae, Acanthuridae, Blenniidae, Carangidae,Lutjanidae have no endemic species in New Caledonia.However, it should be noticed that the proportion ofendemic species is significantly higher among deep waterspecies and species recently described. This effect is probablylinked to sampling effort, as deep water species haveTab. 2. Number of New Caledonian endemic fish species perfamily. Only families with at least two endemic species are included.FamilyEndemicspecies infamilyTotal speciesin familyPercentage ofendemicspecies infamilyBothidae 10 35 28.6Gobiidae 9 190 4.7Macrouridae 9 52 17.3Callionymidae 8 24 33.3Samaridae 5 9 55.6Syngnathidae 5 43 11.6Serranidae 4 95 4.2Triglidae 4 12 33.3Apogonidae 3 81 3.7Congridae 3 23 13.0Ophichthidae 3 24 12.5Scyliorhinidae 3 4 75.0Sparidae 3 4 75.0Urolophidae 3 3 100.0Bythitidae 2 8 25.0not been well sampled in most regions around New Caledoniaand recently described species are likely to be foundin other regions once more material becomes available.Compared to other areas in the southwestern Pacific, NewCaledonia has a higher proportion of endemic species thanregions to the north and east (Papua New Guinea, SolomonIslands, Vanuatu, Fiji or Tonga), similar to the GreatBarrier Reef, but lower than the Northern New ZealandRegion (Lord Howe Island, Norfolk, Island Elizabeth andMiddleton Reef, Kermadec Islands).Several species are not endemic to New Caledonia buthave not been recorded from other parts of the southwesternPacific. There is not enough information on the geographicaldistribution of deepwater and pelagic species,but 60 shore fish species (marine species living in less than80 m and not living as adults in oceanic pelagic waters)have this pattern. The majority (45 species) of these speciesare small (less than 10 cm). Some of them are otherwiseknown only from the tropical northern hemisphere(Japan, Taiwan, Hawaii), and such species were defined asantitropical/antiequatorial by RANDALL (1982). It is possiblethat some of these species are either misidentificationsor represent cryptic species.Zoogeographically, the shallow ichthyofauna of theChesterfield Islands has close affinities with the GreatBarrier Reef and reefs in the West Coral Sea; however,a few species have a bipolar, antiequatorial distribution,with a distribution range at the Chesterfield Islands andin the Western North Pacific Ocean. In the Grande TerreGroup, we find affinities with eastern Australia, NewGuinea, and Vanuatu. In southern Grande Terre and theÎle des Pins, several southwestern Pacific island endemicsare found, which are otherwise distributed at Lord Howeand Norfolk islands. The (deepwater) Norfolk Ridge ichthyofaunahas close affinities with northern New Zealand,and with the neighbouring Lord Howe Rise. Finally, theLoyalty Ridge ichthyofauna is similar to Vanuatu, Fiji, andislands on the Pacific Plate; there is also a faunal similaritywith some reefs of northern (and especially northeastern)Grande Terre.5 ReferencesAARN [no initial] & IVANTSOFF, W. (2009): Description of a newsubfamily, genus and species of a freshwater atherinid, Bleheratherinapierucciae (Pisces: Atherinidae) from New Caledonia.– Aqua, Journal of Ichthyology and aquatic Biology15: 1–24.AKAZAKI, M. & SÉRET, B. (1999): Dentex fourmanoiri, a new speciesof sea bream (Sparidae: Denticinae) from off New Caledonia.– In: SÉRET B. & SIRE, J.-Y. (eds.): Proceedings of the5 th Indo-Pacific Fish Conference, Nouméa 1997, pp. 177–183;Nouméa (O. R. S. T. O. M.).AKIMOTO, S., ITOI, S., SEZAKI, K., BORSA, P. & WATABE, S. (2006):Identification of alfonsino, Beryx mollis and B. splendenscollected in Japan, based on the mitochondrial cytochrome
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