BCRA > Special Interest Groups > Biological Recorder

Graham Proudlove, our Biological Recorder, and his team of experts will be pleased to field your enquiries about cave biology. See BCRA: Contacting Us for details.

• speleobooks.com (USA)
• caves.org (USA)
• speleoprojects.com (Switzerland)
• nhbs.co.uk (UK)
• stevensimpsonbooks.com (UK)

Announcing a major new book on the subterranean fishes of the world...

Subterranean Fishes of the World by Graham Proudlove. An account of the subterranean (hypogean) fishes described up to 2003 with a bibliography 1541 - 2004. With illustrations by Rhian Hicks

Proudlove, Graham (2006), Subterranean Fishes of the World. Moulis, France: International Society of Subterranean Biology. £30.00 plus postage. ISBN to be announced. 304 pp, 87 black and white figures, 20 colour plates.

Available from Graham Proudlove (g.proudlove[at]manchester.ac.uk), Department of Zoology, The Manchester Museum, MANCHESTER, M13 9PL. (See Contacts page). If ordering from overseas you can pay by bank transfer direct to the author's bank account. The book is also available from speleobooks.com and speleoprojects.com. Price in some overseas currencies (postage is extra) Europe: EUR 50, United States: USD 65, Australia: AUD 83, Brazil: BRR 132, Mexico: MXN 694.

Subterranean fishes are found on every continent, in many different environments, from shallow caves to deep phreatic groundwater. Over 125 species of obligate subterranean fishes (stygobites or stygobionts) are now known, and the rate of discovery is so high that there could be 200 known species by 2050.

This book is the first comprehensive account of all known species since 1969. It includes an extensive introduction, including a complete systematic checklist, a history of investigations, a consideration of non-stygobitic fishes in caves, and a detailed analysis of the conservation status of these very rare animals.

The main part of the book consists of an account for each species. Each species account contains details of systematics and taxonomy, distribution, habitat, other biological details, and a listing of all known publications on that species (see example). Details of these publications are given in the extensive bibliography which is the first attempt to list all publications ever written on subterranean fishes. There are currently over 2000 publications in the list (see example). There are a number of appendices and the book is completed by an extensive 'note added in press' which contains information on species described during the final editing and production phase of the book, giving references.