A catalog of the fishes of the island of Formosa, or Taiwan, based on the collection of Dr. Hans Sauter

Table of Contents (ToC)

1. Introduction
2. Ophicephalus tadianus Jordan & Evermann
3. Ophicephalus maculatus Lacépède
4. Channa formosana Jordan & Evermann

Introduction

In the year 1906 a large collection of the market-fishes of the island of Formosa was made by Dr. Hans Sauter. These Were sent to the writers for identification, and were at our suggestion purchased by the Carnegie Museum, in which they are now preserved. A number of duplicates have been presented to the Museum of Stanford University in California.

This collection was obtained in the port of Takao, or Takow, on the southwestern coast of the island of Formosa, called in Japanese Taiwan. It is in excellent condition, and gives a good representation of the market-fishes of Formosa.

For the sake of completeness we have included in this list the fishes recorded by Jordan and Evermann in a paper entitled «Notes on a Collection of Fishes from the Island of Formosa» ( Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXV, 1902, pp. 315-368 ), and also the species recorded by Günther, Regan, and others, which are preserved in the British Museum.

We desire to acknowledge the courtesy of the authorities of the United States National Museum, who have permitted us herewith to reproduce the figures of those species, which were given in the paper referred to above. The plates accompanying this article were drawn by Mr. William Sackston Atkinson.

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Family Ophicephalidae

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211. Ophicephalus tadianus Jordan & Evermann

(Native name Lochii .)

Eight large specimens, eight to fifteen inches long, from Takao. This species is allied to O. polylepis from Sumatra, as noted by Dr. Steindachner, but has a much larger mouth. ¹

Dorsal fin very long, with numerous spine-like rays, low anteriorly gradUally lengthening posteriorly, when depressed the tip of fin reaching beyond root of caudal; the pectoral obtusely rounded, nearly twice as long as broad, reaching beyond the middle of ventral: ventral fins small, not reaching vent; anal similar to the dorsal, inserted beneath anterior third of the base of dorsal, when depressed reaching beyond the root of caudal; caudal fin squarish, with rounded tip; caudal peduncle very short, deep, strongly compressed laterally.

Body covered with rather large cycloid scales with irregular concentric rings and radiated stria-; top of head and cheeks covered with large scales; lateral line discontinuous, undulating, running along the center of body from base of caudal to just over third anal ray, thence upward for two rows of scales, forward sixteen rows, downward one row, and then forward to edge of gill-opening.

O. tadianus by Jordan and Evermann. Today, science considers it as a synonym for C. maculata. This drawing is the first known of C. maculata as far as snakeheads.org knows

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212. Ophicephalus maculatus Lacépède

Giran (Jordan & Evermann)

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213. Channa formosana Jordan & Evermann

Suwata (Jordan & Evermann) ²

C. formosana by Jordan and Evermann. Today, science considers it as a synonym for C. asiatica one of the many synonyms of C. asiatica.

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Footnotes

¹ Ophicephalus tadianus is a synonym for Channa maculata (Lacepède, 1802) , O. polylepis is a synonym for Channa lucius (Cuvier, 1831) . We could not find any reference to Steindachner's claim. [snakeheads.org] Back

² Channa formosana is a synonym for Channa asiatica (Linné, 1758) . [snakeheads.org]. Back

Acknowledgement and Source(s)

This text was originally published under the above title in: Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum . Vol. 4., no.4, pp. 159 - 204, in the year 1909.