Nouméa

Nouméa (French pronunciation: ​[numeˈa]) is the capital city of the French special collectivity of New Caledonia. It is situated on a peninsula in the south of New Caledonia's main island, Grande Terre, and is home to the majority of the island's European, Polynesian (Wallisians, Futunians, Tahitians), Indonesian, and Vietnamese populations, as well as many Melanesians, Ni-Vanuatu and Kanaks that work in one of the South Pacific's most industrialised cities. The city lies on a protected deepwater harbour which serves as the chief port for New Caledonia.

At the August 2014 census, there were 179,509 inhabitants in the metropolitan area of Greater Nouméa (French: agglomération du Grand Nouméa), 100,237 of whom lived in the city (commune) of Nouméa proper. 66.8% of the population of New Caledonia live in Greater Nouméa, which covers the communes of Nouméa, Le Mont-Dore, Dumbéa and Païta.

History

The first European to establish a settlement in the vicinity was British trader James Paddon in 1851. Anxious to assert control of the island, the French established a settlement nearby three years later in 1854, moving from Balade in the north of the island. This settlement was initially called Port-de-France and was renamed Nouméa in 1866. The area served first as a penal colony, later as a centre for the exploitation of the nickel and gold that was mined nearby.

Noumea (gastropod)

Noumea was previously a genus of colorful sea slugs, dorid nudibranchs, shell-less marine gastropod mollusks in the family Chromodorididae.

Noumea Risbec, 1928 (Mollusca: Gastropoda) is a junior homonym of Noumea Fauvel, 1874 (Arthropoda: Coleoptera), a name in current use. Verconia Pruvot-Fol, 1931 was recognized as a synonym of Noumea Risbec by Johnson & Gosliner (2012) and is here used for species of the chromodoridid group previously known as Noumea.

Species

Species in the genus Noumea include:

All these have become synonyms in the genus Verconia.