are linked with color if appropriate. Comments relative to the 

 ecology and distribution of a species may also be included. 



Though every effort was made, species identification was not 

 always possible because the species may be undescribed, because 

 types have been damaged or lost, or simply because additional 

 study of related material is necessary. In these cases the fishes are 

 listed as sp. or spp. under the proper genus. Collection data in- 

 cluding number collected, range of standard lengths, and depth of 

 capture are noted. A short diagnosis of key characteristics, in- 

 cluding life colors, is given to facilitate subsequent identification. 



Museum catalog numbers are listed for most of the unidentified 

 and for some of the uncommon species. The following abbrevia- 

 tions are used: 



This deepwater species is occasionally caught by handline fish- 

 ermen. 



Orectolobidae (Nurse Sharks) 



Nebrius ferrugineus (Lesson, 1830). Moemoeao. 



Ginglymostoma mulleri — Schmeltz, 1877. 

 Stegostoma fasciatum (Hermann, 1783). Ta'aneva, moemoeao. 



Lamnidae (Mackerel Sharks) 



Isurus oxyrinchus Rafinesque, 1810. Aso-polota. 



AMS — The Australian Museum, Sydney, Australia 

 ANSP — Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, Penn. 

 BPBM — Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii 



CAS — California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, Calif. 

 GMBL — Grice Marine Biological Laboratory, Charleston, S.C. 

 MU — Macquarie University, North Ryde, Australia 



NMB — Naturhistoriches Museum, Braunschweig, Federal 



Republic of Germany 

 WAM — Western Australian Museum, Perth, Australia 

 USNM— U.S. National Museum, Washington, D.C. 



SUMMARY OF CONTENTS 



The checklist includes 566 species collected and identified by 

 the author, 225 species collected by the author and identified by a 

 recognized authority for the species complex, 27 species recorded 

 from Samoa in the literature with the identifications confirmed by 

 the author through examination of museum specimens, 36 species 

 recorded from Samoa in the literature and validated through per- 

 sonal communication with knowledgeable taxonomists, 1 1 species 

 recorded from Samoa in the literature since 1957, and 7 species 

 recently collected and identified by recognized authorities. An ad- 

 ditional 38 unconfirmed records from the older literature are also 

 listed with their uncertainty denoted by an asterisk. They are listed 

 by the name currently accepted as valid for the name under which 

 they were originally recorded. 



Including the 78 species identified only to family or genus, the 

 list totals 991 species; 113 families are represented and 284 species 

 are listed which have not been previously recorded from Samoa. 

 Of the total, 890 are considered shallow-water or reef-inhabiting 

 species (generally found at depths <60 m); 56 are considered 

 deeper bottom fishes (associated with the bottom at depths of 

 60-500 m); and 45 are considered pelagic surface species (frequent- 

 ing the offshore waters above the thermocline at depths < 200 m). 

 None of the listed species are true deepwater fishes. 



About 40 fishes are presently known only from Samoa and 

 most are undescribed. The majority of these will probably be 

 found in neighboring archipelagos as more extensive collections 

 are made. Excepting the relatively isolated Hawaiian fauna in 

 which about 29% of the species are endemic (Randall 1976), most 

 of the marine fishes of Oceania are rather widely distributed and 

 species composing the Samoan fauna are no exception. 



LIST OF FISHES 



Hexanchidae (Bulldog Sharks) 



Hexanchus griseus (Bonnaterre, 1788). 



Alopiidae (Thresher Sharks) 



Thresher sharks are occasionally caught in Samoan waters by 

 tuna longline vessels though no specimens were available for ex- 

 amination. 



Carcharhinidae (Requiem Sharks) 



The general name for sharks in Samoa is malic . J. A. F. Gar- 

 rick provided comments regarding the taxonomy of this family. 



Carcharhinus albimarginatus (Riippell, 1837). Aso. 

 Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos (Bleeker , 1856). Malie-aloalo. 



Garrick has found that menisorrah, as used by Schultz (in 



Schultz et al. 1953) and subsequent authors, is a misidentifica- 



tion. 

 Carcharhinus falciformis (Bibron in Muller and Henle, 1841). 

 Carcharhinus galapagensis (Snodgrass and Heller, 1905). 

 Carcharhinus leucas (Valenciennes in Miiller and Henle, 1841). 

 Carcharhinus limbatus (Valenciennes in Miiller and Henle, 1841). 



Eulamia limbatus — Steindachner, 1906. 

 Carcharhinus longimanus (Poey, 1861). Apoapo. 

 Carcharhinus melanopterus (Quoy and Gaimard, 1824). Apeape, 



malie-alamata. 



Carcharias melanopterus — Jordan and Evermann, 1905. 

 Galeocerdo cuvier (Peron and LeSueur in LeSueur, 1822). Naiufi. 

 Negaprion acutidens (Riippell, 1837). 

 Prionace glauca (Linnaeus, 1758). Aso-polota. 



This record is based on an observation by Patrick Bryan and 



Roger Pflum of a shark caught near the surface on a handline 



about 12 km offshore. 

 Triaenodon obesm (Riippell, 1837). Main. 



Triaenodon obesus — Randall, 1977. 



Sphyrnidae (Hammerhead Sharks) 



Sphyrna lewini Griffith and Smith in Cuvier, Griffith, and Smith, 

 1834. Mata'italiga. 



The young of this species are commonly captured by gillnet in 

 Pago Pago Bay. 



"Sphyrna zygaena (Linnaeus, 1758). Mata'italiga. 

 Sphyrna zygaena — Jordan and Seale, 1906. 

 The two specimens upon which this record is based were not 

 cataloged and could not be found within the collection of the 

 U.S. National Museum. This species may occur in Samoa but 

 Jordan and Seale probably confused it with lewini which is cer- 

 tainly the more abundant of the two. 



