Carole Baldwin

I. Continuing work on ontogeny of marine fishes, including synthesizing information on the utility of marine fish larvae in evolutionary studies: (1) Identification of larvae of coral-reef fishes of Carrie Bow Cay, Belize, through rearing studies (with Dave Smith and Julie Mounts). We are also working with Lee Weight (NMNH Laboratory of Analytical Biology) to barcode the fishes of Belize in hopes of successfully matching larvae and adults genetically. We hope to expand this work in coming years to include other areas of the Caribbean. (2) Describing juvenile stages of a rare serranid fish, Rainfordia opercularis (with Jedd Leis, Australian Museum).

II. Continuing work on systematics of tropical Atlantic and eastern Pacific shorefishes: (1) Working on a manuscript on morphological vs. genetic divergence in Atlantic and eastern Pacific blennies of the genus Ophioblennius (with Vic Springer and Carol Stepien); (2) Finishing a manuscript (with John McCosker, California Academy of Sciences) on a new species ofcatshark of the genus Bythaelurus from the Galápagos Islands. (3) Beginning to investigate systematics of Coryphopterus/Fusigobius/Lophogobius (with Jack Randall and Jim Van Tassell). IV. Field work during the upcoming year will be conducted at Carrie Bow Cay, Belize, in late March/early April. Additionally, I am coordinating the fish research for the Deep Ocean Expeditions international expedition to Panama, Costa Rica, and Colombia to investigate deep-ocean areas throughout the oceanic islands and seamounts of the tropical eastern Pacific. This privately funded trip was supposed to have taken placethis winter, but delays resulting from the ship being docked in Gulf Port, MS during Hurricane Katrina have delayed the trip until summer, 2006

Jeff Clayton

I am working on a comparative life history study of 3 shiner species, Notropis (Hydrophlox) spp., which occur in headwater streams in western North Carolina and South Carolina.

Bruce B. Collette

Current research projects include: (1) sections on Belonidae and Hemiramphidae for Fishes of the Western North Atlantic; (2) FAO world catalogue of beloniform fishes (with N.V. Parin); (3) three studies for the Proceedings of the 4th International Billfish Symposium - molecular phylogenetic studies of Scombroidei and Xiphioidei (with Tom Orrell and Dave Johnson), morphology of black marlin sperm (with K. Van Der Straten, L.K. Leung, and S. D. Johnston), and phylogeny of Recent billfishes (with J. McDowell and J. Graves); (4) phylogenetic studies of the Beloniformes (with H. Banford and N. R. Lovejoy); (5) phylogenetic and host-parasite studies of remoras, Echeneidae (with J.S. Ho and K. Gray); (6) revision of halfbeaks of the genus Zenarchopterus; (7) sexual dimorphism in the southeast Asian freshwater needlefish, Xenentodon (with M. Kottelat); (8) faunal study of the fishes of the West Wind Drift islands and sea mounts; (9) hermaphroditism in Serranus novemcinctus (with C. Roberts); and (10) continued participation in refinement of ITIS, the Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Long-range studies continue on the systematics of the Scombroidei, Xiphioidei, Belonidae, Hemiramphidae, and Batrachoididae.

Dave Johnson

Occipito-vertebral fusion in Actinopterygii: myth and reality, with Ralf Britz; Reassessment of previous hypotheses of tetraodontiform intrarelationships, with an emphasis on ontogeny, including osteology of the smallest Triodon on record, with Ralf Britz; osteology of Parastromateus niger, with a comparative emphasis on gill arches of carangoid fishes, with Eric Hilton; a remarkable rib/swimbladder association in the Moonfish, Mene maculata, with Julian Humphries; description of the first known larval specimens of the lampridiform veliferids, Velifer and Metavelifer, discovered in the collections of the National Science Museum, Tokyo, with John Olney; photography of NSMT larval fish specimens for my planned book with Ralf Britz on larvae of marine fishes

Les Knapp

My current research efforts involve describing three new species of flatheads from the Western Indian Ocean plus a fourth with a broader Indo-Pacific range.

Thomas A. Munroe

Current work includes: (1) revision of eastern Pacific species of Symphurus; (2) identification and curation of a large collection of flatfishes from off El Salvador; (3) descriptions of new species of Symphurus from off Japan (with J. Hashimoto), New Caledonia, New Zealand and central Pacific; (4) continued study and identification of collections of Symphurus and other flatfishes (curated in Paris Museum) from French Polynesia and the Philippines; (5) identification and description of interesting larvae of Symphurus spp. from the Galapagos Islands (with T. Krabbenhoft); (6) systematics of paralichthyid flounders occurring in Argentine waters (with J. Diaz de Astarloa); (7) molecular phylogeny of paralichthyid flatfishes (with J. Mcdowell); (8) continued work on systematics of species of the flatfish genus Soleichthys; (9) continued work on Cynoglossus from Australia and Indo-Pacific waters; (10) continued analysis of spatial and temporal distributions of flatfishes inhabiting Chesapeake Bay (with H. Brooks and W. Lowery); (11) continued work on annotated and illustrated catalogue of scophthalmid flatfishes (with B. Chanet). Long-range studies continue on a compilation of an annotated and illustrated catalogue of pleuronectid flatfishes (with J.A. Cooper), continuation of systematic studies on Cynoglossid and selected genera of Soleid flatfishes and documenting the diversity and global patterns of species richness for the Pleuronectiformes.

Thomas M. Orrell

Current research includes a molecular phylogeny and total evidence analysis of the Scombroidei with B. Collette, and G. D. Johnson and a total evidence analysis of the Sparidae with K. E. Carpenter.

Lynne R. Parenti

Current research includes ongoing projects on the systematics and biogeography of freshwater, coastal and marine fishes from the Indo-Australian archipelago, particularly northwestern Borneo and Sulawesi, phylogenetic analyses of select groups of atherinomorph fishes, continued use of gonad (with Harry Grier) and nerve (with Jiakun Song) characters in fish systematics, and the theory and application of historical biogeography (with Malte Ebach, Berlin). Malte and I are currently writing Comparative Biogeography for University of California Press. Research Collaborator Jeannine Cody and I have been developing a website on vertebrate reproductive morphology, with an emphasis on fish systematics.

David G. Smith

Work continues on larval fishes from Carrie Bow Cay, Belize, with Carole Baldwin, Julie Mounts, and Lee Weigt. This project has been combined with the Fishes Barcode of Life project, as we have collected tissue samples from as many species of Belizean fishes as we could get our hands on. This will help us to identify larvae and to investigate many taxonomic problems in Caribbean fishes. An update of the larval-fish website is underway. A paper describing a new species of Pteropsaron, with Dave Johnson, was completed and submitted for publication. Further work on this group may be undertaken, as several additional undescribed species exist. Numerous eel studies are in various stages of progress, awaiting time to work on them. I continue to work on a series of biographical articles on ichthyologists for Copeia's Historical Perspectives series. Inci Bowman and I plan a continuation of our work on the history of ichthyology at the Smithsonian, emphasizing the post-1900 period.

Jiakun Song

Current research focus is on understanding the new genotypical explanation of the peripheral innervation patterns for assessing morphological homologies in phylogenetic and systematic studies; to finish my manuscripts on innervation and homology of neuromast patterns in gobies and the dermal bones in teleosts; and to continue the work of phylogenetic analyses on pectoral-pelvic fin in acanthomorph fishes with Lynne R. Parenti.

Victor G. Springer

Studies continue with W. Smith-Vaniz on systematics of carangoid fishes, with J.T. Williams on western Indian Ocean blenniids. I continue to amass data for preparation of article on Charles Bradford Hudson (1865-1939), natural history illustrator and artist.

Kenneth A. Tighe

Continues research on the eel family Chlopsidae including systematics of the genus Kaupichthys and the redescription of the Indo-Pacific eel Xenoconger fryeri with Jack Randall of the Bishop Museum. He is working on an annotated checklist of the freshwater fishes of Palau and the occurrence of the gobiod, Rhyacichthys aspro, in Palau with Aaron Jenkins of Wetlands International, Australia and Rick Winterbottom of the Royal Ontario Museum. In addition, he is reviewing the families Chlopsidae and Synaphobranchidae for William Eschmeyer's Annotated Checklist of Fishes of the World. Other eel research continues as time permits.

Richard Vari

I will continue my phylogenetic study of the South American Characiform family Anostomidae with Brian Sidlauskas (University of Chicago and FMNH). We hope to have a manuscript completed by the end of the year. In collaboration with Carl Ferraris, I am working on various projects on South American and South Asian catfishes. Ricardo Castro (Universidade de Sгo Paulo) and I are engaged in a multi-year study of the South American Characiform family Characidae and I will be visiting Brazilthis year as part of the project. I am beginning a phylogenetic and revisionary study of darter-like genera Nannocharax and Hemmigrammocharax of the African characiform family Distichodontidae. If time allows, I will be visiting various European museums to examine their holdings of interest.

Marilyn Weitzman

Continuing studies of the Lebiasinidae with several projects ongoing. These include descriptions of new species of Pyrrhulina and Copella from Peru and Brazil. Continuing attempts at phylogenetic studies but these are difficult due to lack of sufficient numbers of specimens from known localities.

Stan Weitzman

Continued editing and some statistical analyses of fresh data are being completed on the nearly finished "A phylogenetic review of the glandulocaudine fish tribe Glandulocaudini, (Characiformes), from eastern Brazil", by N. Menezes and S. H. Weitzman. However, the primary current effort is the editing completion of a book expected to be published in 2006 and in Portuguese and English titled: "Conservation of Neotropical Freshwater Fishes with Special Reference to and a List of the Fishes of the Atlantic Forest of Brazil." The authors are Naйrcio A. Menezes, Stanley H. Weitzman, Ricardo M. C. Castro, Flávio Lima, Osvaldo Oyakawa, and Marilyn J. Weitzman. Other projects that are in progress in 2006 are the "Reproductive Morphology of Brittanichthys axelrodi (Characiformes: Characidae) an Inseminating Fish from South America" with Robert Javonillo and John Burns, both of The George Washington University and a paper on the "Intromittent organs in the genus Monotocheirodon (Ostariopysi: Characiformes: Characidae)," as well as another, also with John Burns, on a review of the fishes of the genus Monotocheirodon. Other research projects on reproductive modes and systematics of South American characiforms are also in progress.

Jeffrey T. Williams

Current work: description of four new species of Helcogramma from the western Pacific; description of new species of Manonichthys and Pseudochromis (Pseudochromidae) from the Philippines (with Tony Gill); review of the Canthigaster coronata species complex (with J. Randall); revisionary studies on the Indo-Pacific blenniid genera Alticus and Andamia (Blenniidae); a chapter on Blenniidae for a book on the fishes of the western Indian Ocean is being prepared with Vic Springer; family accounts for Blenniidae, Labrisomidae, Chaenopsidae, Tripterygiidae and Dactyloscopidae for the FAO Species Identification sheets for the Eastern Central Atlantic are in press (some with Vic Springer). An expedition to survey the fish biodiversity of Saba Bank Atoll, Caribbean, was carried out from 2-16 January 2006, with Jim Van Tassell, Kent Carpenter, Mike Smith and others. A biodiversity and biocoding project to survey the fishes of Moorea, French Polynesia will conducted from March 8 to April 3, 2006, with S. Planes, R. Galzin, and D. Lecchini. A stable isotope project and a survey of the fishes of Mururoa Atoll, French Polynesia, was conducted from 18 June to 10 July 2006, with M. Kulbicki, R. Galzin, A. Brooks, G. Moutham and N. Leclerc.