Checklist of marine fishes of the Zunan Islands, located between the Izu and Ogasawara (Bonin) islands, Japan, with zoogeographical comments

Abstract

The Zunan Islands are located 360–650 km south of Tokyo, and consist of four uninhabited volcanoes: the Bayonnaise Rocks, the Smith Rocks, Torishima Island and the Sofugan Rock. Although all of the elements of the Zunan Islands are tiny islets and rocks, they form a series of stepping stones for shallow water fishes between the Izu Islands in the north and the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands in the south. We report here the first comprehensive survey of marine fishes in the Zunan Islands. A total of 139 species of fishes (88 genera of 46 families in 11 orders) were recorded on the basis of specimens and/or underwater photographs. Although our survey showed that the fish fauna of the Zunan Islands was more similar to that of the Ogasawara than that of the Izu islands, most of the species from the Zunan Islands occurred in all three island groups.