Biodiversidad ictiológica continental de Venezuela. Parte I. Lista de especies y distribución por cuencas

We present a corrected, expanded and updated list of the continental fishes of Venezuela. We develop a matrix presenting three types of information: taxon, ecological habitsas a function of salinity, and distribution in the seven principal hydrological basins (Orinoco, Cuyuní, Río Negro, Gulf of Paria, Caribbean, Lake Valencia and Maracaibo). From the mostrecent list of the Venezuelan fish species, 137 species were removed while 270 new species were added. The continental ichthyological species list for Venezuela now comprises 1198 species in 22 orders, 82 families and 471 genera. The best-represented orders are the Characiformes (450 spp.), Siluriformes (395 spp.), Perciformes (160 spp.) and the Gymnotiformes (65 spp.). The River Orinoco is the richest basin (939 spp.), followed by Río Negro (283 spp.), Caribbean (194 spp.), Cuyuní (186 spp.), Maracaibo (177 spp.), Gulf of Paria (158 spp.) and Lake Valencia (32 spp.). Strong positive correlations are observed between a) the surface area of each basin and the total species richness per basin, and b) the number of strictly freshwater species per basin and the number of unique species per basin. Approximately 85% of the species are exclusively fresh water and 15% were euryhaline.