Check list da ictiofauna de água doce da Caatinga.

Abstract

Brazil covers most of the freshwater fish species of the world. The caatinga is an exclusively Brazilian biome with little studies about freshwater fish species. On this paper we developed a list of freshwater fish species found in the caatinga. The compilation of registered fish species in this biome was based on online search on Species link platform. We found 255 fish species classified in 9 orders and 32 families. The orders Characiformes (118) Siluriformes (72) and Perciformes (40) were most representative regard to the number of species. Characidae was the family with largest number of species collected in the caatinga. Astyanax bimaculatus was the most abundant species, followed by Serrapinnus heterodon. Bahia is the Brasilian State within caatinga biome with highest number of lots deposited in consulted collections; and the state with the lowest number of lots deposited was Sergipe. Paraiba and Pernambuco are noteworthy for future fauna surveys, since they have landscape regions with absence of freshwater fish species lots deposited in scientific collections. Six recorded species are threatened of extinction. The caatinga still has regions with few surveys of ichthyofauna and it is important to emphasize the importance of executing inventories to know fish species biodiversity in the region.