SPECIES BY FAMILY/SUBFAMILY IN THE

By and

In 2016, there have been 287 new species described. In 2015, there were 427 new species added. The number of valid species of fishes is about 34,055. Various authors cite the number of species in a particular family or subfamily, especially in family revisions. This is useful information for biodiversity estimates, conservation issues, etc.

We feel the most current and most accurate counts of valid species is the Catalog of Fishes database, one that has been maintained for about 25 years, and which tracks all new taxa and many revisional studies on an almost daily basis. This summary is posted along with new versions of the Catalog of Fishes at http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatmain.asp.

Species included: We include only available species-group names, and exclude names that are technically unavailable for use. Very few subspecies are described in current literature, and we treat them as available names at the species level. However, we do not treat the status of subspecies as such, only as synonyms at the species level. So our counts are valid species as recognized in the current literature. We assume that all new species described in the last 10 years are valid, unless status references show they are synonyms. There are many unplaced available names, especially from the 1800s and early 1900s. Our experience shows that nearly all are synonyms.

Some families that are no longer recognized will show no included species; they are left in temporarily so users will not think the have been left out. If you call up a genus previously in these families, you can find the new family placement.

Table 2 illustrates the new species described in the last 20 years. The increase in recent years is due to more workers and more funding (such as the Catfish All-Species and Cyprinid All-species NSF grants), along with increased exploration in some countries.

Finally, our data show that the number of available names for use at the species level as of 29 September 2016 is 59,048, the number of valid genera is 5,195, and the number of valid species is 34,055.

Copyright: and , 2016.