Contributions to the ichthyofaunas of the West Flower Garden Reef and other reef sites in the Gulf of Mexico and western Caribbean

Abstract

A taxonomic and biogeographic study was made of the fishes from ten reef sites in the western Gulf of Mexico and the northwestern Caribbean with the greatest sampling effort at the West Flower Garden Reef. This paper reports on some 950 specimens representing 181 species in 53 families from these areas, collected from August 1970 to December 1972. Of these species, 49 represent new records for the northwestern Gulf, 11 are new records for the southwestern Gulf, five are new records for the entire Gulf of Mexico, two are new records for the United States, two are undescribed (one clinid from the northwestern Gulf and one wrasse from the southwestern Gulf), and five are clarifications of doubtful or overlooked records from Texas. Material, description, references, range, ecological, and/or morphological information are given for each species under the systematic account. ...