The Swedish Expedition to the Gambia in 1931

For seven months in 1931, Gustav S.O. Svensson and Birger Rudebeck conducted the first of two major Swedish ichthyological expeditions to the Gambia. The objectives were to study the life history of the lungfish and bichirs, and to collect material of those and other fish species to study their early development at the Zootomical Institute (now Department of Zoology of the Stockholm University). A second expedition took place in 1950.
The 1931 expedition remained for over an entire rainy season, from 21 May till mid-December 1931, on MacCarthy Island, about 330 km from the capital, Banjul.
All material collected during the 1931 expedition, except a small portion that was consumed in the anatomical studies, was maintained in good order in the Department of Zoology, but was eventually transferred to the Swedish Museum of Natural History, where practically all of it is now computer catalogued. (As of 2007: 10157 specimens of 80 species)
Svensson (1933) provided a comprehensive description of the collecting conditions and a list of species collected. Altogether 72 species were reported from the MacCarthy Island area. Twelve new species were described by Svensson, viz. Petrocephalus brevipedunculatus, Marcusenius rudebeckii, Gnathonemus gambiensis, Alestes nigrilineatus, Petersius loennbergi, Barbus gambiensis, Labeo toboensis, Schilbe palmeri, Parailia spiniserrata, Fundulus gambiensis, Panchax steindachneri, and Aplocheilichthys gambiensis. Johnels (1954) described Barbus svenssoni, partly on the basis of material collected by the 1931 expedition.

Find out more:
Species list
Collecting sites (Map from Svensson, 1933, fig. 2)
NRM expedition database (search for "The Swedish Expedition to the Gambia in 1931")

References
JOHNELS, A. G. 1954. Notes on fishes from the Gambia River. Arkiv för Zoologi 6: 327-411.
SVENSSON, G. S. O. 1933. Fresh water fishes from the Gambia River (British West Africa). Results of the Swedish expedition 1931. Kungl. Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar (3) 12 (3): 1-102.

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