Studies of recent bathyal collections mainly made during MUSORSTOM cruises have shown an extremely diverse grenadier fauna in the New Caledonian region. A total of 932 grenadier specimens (families Bathygadidae and Macrouridae) representing 49 species in 16 genera were collected from 102 samples taken from depths between 395 and 2105 m (mid-depth sounding). Of the 49 species, 15 (31%) were found to be new (one recently described) and two are treated as indeterminate. The collections were dominated by the genera Caelorinchus (14 spp., 5 new), Ventrifossa (7 spp., 2 new, but one not named), Hymenocephalus (sensu lato) (7 spp., 2 new), and Nezumia (5 spp., 3 new). This paper reports the taxonomic findings on the collections. A subsequent paper will report on aspects of the distribution and biology of grenadiers in the New Caledonian region.

AZTEQUE, BERYX 11, BERYX 2, BIOCAL, BIOGEOCAL, CHALCAL 2, CORAIL 2, HALIPRO 2, MUSORSTOM 4, MUSORSTOM 5, MUSORSTOM 6, MUSORSTOM 7, SMIB 1, SMIB 3, VOLSMAR

We reported in an earlier paper the great species richness of the grenadier fauna (families Bathygadidae and Macrouridae) from recent bathyal trawl collections made mainly during MUSORSTOM cruises in the New Caledonian region. Here we add information from further samples to complement earlier taxonomic findings, and descriptions of 2 new species, together with comments on species, distribution and ecology. Thus a total of 2055 specimens from 221 samples examined representing 20 genera and 63 species were found to have closest similarity in composition with New South Wales, Western Australia and New Zealand. As expected, dissimilarity increased with distance from New Caledonia. Four genera dominated in species richness: Caelorinchus (17), Hymenocephalus (8), Nezumia (5) and Ventrifossa (6), comprising 2/3 of the total fauna. The generic make-up of the faunas closest to New Caledonia were most consistent with that region; propordons varied radically from there in the more distant regions invesdgated. Bathymetrically, the smaller trawls of the MUSORSTOM surveys collected grenadiers over a range of tows shallower than that reflected by the commercial gear used on the HALIPRO 2 cruise, with a generally smaller size of fish sampled. Co-occurrence of grenadier species within similar depth strata on the slope was remarkably high, with only two of the 63 species not represented, at least over part of their depth range, in the upper 1600 m. Species richness peaked at 37 in both the 700 and 800 tn strata, although it did not drop below 20 across the depth range 400-1100 m and reduced substantially only deeper than 1400 m.

BATHUS 1, BATHUS 3, HALIPRO 2, MUSORSTOM 7, MUSORSTOM 8