ABSTRACT

The New Zealand Subantarctic Islands are a collection of archipelagos scattered across the Southern Ocean to the south and southeast of Stewart Island, New Zealand. Located within the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties, their climate is cool, wet and exceedingly windy. Charles Fleming first biogeographic essay appeared in Tuatara in 1949 in which he classified the New Zealand biota in terms of old endemics, and older and younger dispersers from various places such as Australia, Antarctica and the Indo-Pacific. Fleming was probably the last great generalist of New Zealand science, and biogeography was the means by which he was able to integrate these interests. The Chatham Islands are also usually included as part of the New Zealand Subantarctic Islands from a biological viewpoint too. The biological link between the Chatham Island’s biota and New Zealand is also apparent in other groups.