New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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M00023
Received 12 May 2000; accepted 21 August 2000

Parioglossus (Teleostei: Gobioidei: Microdesmidae) in New Zealand

R. M. MCDOWALL

National Institute of Water & Atmospheric
 Research
P. O. Box 8602
Christchurch, New Zealand
email: r.mcdowall@niwa.cri.nz

Abstract  The genus Parioglossus is known widely across the Indo-West Pacific from tropical western Pacific islands (Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia), through eastern subtropical to tropical Australia, in south-east Asia and north to Japan, and west across the Indian Ocean to Madagascar. It is hitherto not recorded from New Zealand, but is here reported from a stream near North Cape in far northern New Zealand, and another draining a wetland on Great Barrier Island in the north-east of the country. New Zealand specimens do not conform completely to any published descriptions of Parioglossus, but this seems likely to reflect inadequacies in the published descriptions. The fish appear closest to the eastern Australian P. marginalis. Typical habitat is unclear, though simple testing of euryhalinity suggests an ability to inhabit marine, brackish, and possibly fresh waters. Whether the species has been long present in New Zealand waters, undiscovered, has dispersed to New Zealand across the Tasman Sea in ocean currents, or was brought to New Zealand in ballast water discharged from ships, is not known. Parioglossus is one of several species newly discovered in New Zealand waters, for which various explanations are possible.

Keywords  Parioglossus; new record; Microdesmidae; Great Barrier Island; North Cape

New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2001, Vol. 35: 165-172

0028-8330/01/3501-0165 $7.00 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand 2001

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (714K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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