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New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstractsM00023 Received 12 May 2000; accepted 21 August 2000
Parioglossus (Teleostei: Gobioidei: Microdesmidae) in New ZealandR. M. MCDOWALL
National Institute of Water & Atmospheric
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. |