A revised checklist of Cape Verde Islands sea fishes

During ichthyological research and teaching activities in the Cape Verde Archipelago, the authors noticed that the readily available inventories of its sea fishes underrepresented the mesopelagic species, contrary to an older Spanish list, which regrettably remained widely unknown. These inventories were compared, revised, combined and commented on, plus a multitude of individual descriptions, survey reports, biogeographical treatises, and unpublished data were put in a checklist. From the resulting list of 1046 names thus far reported, 779 species are supported by records, respectively, their general zoogeography. Another 29 records need confirmation. Seventeen (in the literature, up to 20) species are believed to be endemic. The list comprises 91 first records, plus many earlier records from previously disregarded literature. Seventy-five other names are erroneous either by synonym, misidentification, or misspelling. In 64 cases earlier listings referred to an erroneous geographical location. The number of recorded species will likely increase with future ichthyological research. The ichthyofauna of the Cape Verde Islands is composed mainly of widely distributed species, plus those from the Guinean Region, a few endemics, several amphi-Atlantic species, as well as shore fishes from the NW African coast.