Ichthyologic Fauna of Niulan River

In Nov 2006, and Oct 2008, members of the Kunming Institute of Zoology (KIZ) collected 42 species from fish surveys of Niulan River, a tributary of Jinsha River, Yunnan. According to historical records and specimens preserved in the collection museum of KIZ, there are a total of 59 fish species in Niulan River, belonging to 46 genera, 12 families and 5 orders. Ichthyologic fauna of Niulan River were separately analyzed by traditional method and the Value of Faunal Presence (VFP) method at the respective levels of Order, Family and Genus. The two kinds of ranking methods gave two rather different results. Traditional analysis indicated that some world-distributed families and genera had a small proportion in the Niulan River. In contrast, the VFP of some endemic families and genera turned out to be relatively high. The families Amblycipitidae and Channidae have two generas distributed through Africa and southern Asia, with the highest VFP. The genera Jinshaia and Metahomaloptera are distributed through the Yangtze River, with a VFP of 100%. Pseudogyrinocheilus and Oreias have one species, with a VFP of 100%. By this token, the VFP method reflects ichthyologic fauna more accurately than the traditional method. By combining these two methods, we analyzed the ichthyologic fauna of Niulan River, and then compared it with that of the Jinsha River from Shigu to Yibin, which indicated high comparability.