Checklist of the fi shes of New Caledonia, and their distribution in the Southwest Pacifi c Ocean (Pisces)

Abstract

A b s t r a c t A checklist of the fi shes of New Caledonia is presented. A total of 2328 species in 246 families have been re-corded from the region. Eight of these species are not native, but have been introduced. Five fi sh families are rep-resented only by introduced species. The native fi sh fauna of New Caledonia therefore consists of 2320 species in 241 families. The largest families are the Gobiidae, Labridae, Pomacentridae, Serranidae, Apogonidae, Blenniidae, Macrouridae, Myctophidae and Muraenidae. The freshwater fi sh fauna is dominated by the families Gobiidae, Eleotridae, Anguillidae and Mugilidae. A total of 61 species represent new records from New Caledonia. The fi sh fauna from New Caledonia includes a total of 125 species occurring in freshwater (plus eight intro-duced species), 266 (plus two introduced) species in transitional (brackish) waters, and 2320 marine species. The detailed geographical distribution of the New Caldonian fi sh species including the southern submarine ridges (Lord