Provided for non-commercial research and education use

This article appeared in a journal published by National Museum of Marine
Biology and Aquarium (NMMBA). The attached copy is furnished to theauthor for internal non-commercial research and education use, including for
instruction at the authors institution and sharing with colleagues.
In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the article (e.g. in
Word or Tex form) to their personal website or institutional repository. Authors
requiring further information regarding NMMBA’s archiving and manuscript
policies are encouraged to visit:https://www.nmmba.gov.tw/publication/cp.aspx?n=2E3C7FDAA51E3E73

Platax 17: 113-117, 2020
doi: 10.29926/platax.202012_17.0008

First record of an armored searobin, Satyrichthys clavilapis
Fowler, 1938 (Teleostei: Peristediidae) from Taiwan
Toshio Kawai1* and Hsuan-Ching Ho2
1

Faculty of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, 3-1-1 Minato-cho, Hakodate, Hokkaido 041-8611, Japan

2

National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, Checheng, Pingtung 944, Taiwan＊Corresponding author. Email: toshio.kawai@fish.hokudai.ac.jp

Abstract
A single specimen of a rare armored searobin, Satyrichthys clavilapis Fowler, 1938
was collected from a fishing port at Donggang, Pingtung, Taiwan. This species waspreviously known only from the Philippines and Indonesia and so represents not only
the first specimen from Taiwan, but also the northernmost record of this species. As ofcurrent, six species within the Satyrichthys genus are known from Taiwanese waters.
Key words: Actinopterygii, Fish, Ichthyology, Scorpaeniformes, Taiwan, Taxonomy

Introduction

characterized by a body entirely enclosed(familyby four rows of spinous bony plates (scutes)

Peristediidae), with 6 genera and 45

on each side and a large bony head withspecies currently known, are usually foundspines and ridges; each first infraorbitalin tropical and temperate oceans around(lachrymal)

the world at depths around 50 to 1,324 m.

distinct rostral projections; barbels on theThey inhabit continental shelf edge or

lower jaw and pectoral fins with the two

insular slopes and are often taken in trawl

ventral most fin rays free and enlarged

catches from deep waters (>180 m) and are(Kawai, 2008).

Thearmoredsearobinsanteriorly

extendinginconsidered trash fish and are very rarely

The genus Satyrichthys Kaup, 1873,

used as food (Miller, 1967; Kawai, 2008,

with 7 species recognized in the Indo-2013, 2019; Fricke et al., 2017).

Pacific Ocean, is characterized by noMemberof

Peristediidae

upper jaw teeth, lateral margin of the headare113

Platax 17: 113-117, 2020
doi: 10.29926/platax.202012_17.0008

smooth, posterior bony plates in the lower

The voucher specimen is deposited in thelateral rows separated on the ventral

fish collection of the National Museum of

midline, no branched barbels on the lower

Marine Biology and Aquarium (NMMB-P)

jaw except for the posterior-most lip (=in Pingtung, Taiwan.

filamentous barbel) and chin barbels andResults

fewer than 20 soft rays in the dorsal andanal fins (Kawai, 2008, 2013).
In Taiwan, 5 species were collected

Satyrichthys clavilapis Fowler, 1938

and documented previously, namely S.

菲律賓紅魴鮄laticeps (Schlegel, 1852), S. milleri Kawai,

Fig. 1

2013, S. moluccensis (Bleeker, 1850), S.
rieffeli (Kaup, 1859), and S. welchi (Herre,Material1925) (e.g., Shen et al., 1993; Shen & Wu,

65.7 mm SL, off Donggang, Pingtung,2011; Kawai, 2013; Kawai & Ho, 2019).

southwestern Taiwan, bottom trawl, 20thOn October 20 , 2017, a single
wascollected

offDonggang,Pingtung, southwestern Taiwan. We report
this first record from Taiwan herein andprovided a detail description of thespecimen.

Materials and methods
Counts and measurements generally
followed Kawai et al. (2004) while cranial
spine terminology followed Miller (1967).
The specimen was collected by bottom
trawl and found in a landing ground at fish
market,thenpreservedinNMMB-P27342,Oct. 2017.
Diagnosis. A species of Satyrichthys withtwo (rarely one) lip and 0 (rarely one) chinbarbels, dusky spots along base of dorsal
fin, and antrorse spines on posterior bonyplates of upper lateral row (Kawai &Takata, 2008, 2009; Kawai, 2013).
Description of NMMB-P27342. Count.
Dorsal-fin rays VII, 17; anal-fin rays 17;
pectoral-fin rays including two detachedrays 16; pelvic-fin rays I, 5; principal
caudal-fin rays 12; bony plates in dorsal
row 27; bony plates in upper lateral row 31(24th‒26th plates with antrorse spine); bonyplates in lower lateral row 23; bony plates
in ventral row 23; bony plates before anus
2; groups of barbels (lip+chin) 2+0;
branches on filamentous barbel 6; gillrakers 6+1+23=30. Frontal-1 spine 1;parietal 1; post-temporal single weakridge; opercular 2; preopercular 2 (thespecimen identified as S. clavilapis Fowler,
1938

examined.

4%

formaldehyde liquid and transferred into
70% ethanol for long term preservation.
The measurements were made by digital
caliper running to nearest 0.1 mm.
Standard length (SL) is used throughout.
114

Platax 17: 113-117, 2020
doi: 10.29926/platax.202012_17.0008

Fig. 1. Dorsal (upper) and lateral (lower) views of Satyrichthys clavilapis, NMMBP27342, 65.7 mm SL.
outer spine very large and the inner small).

fin ray length 18.9; pelvic-fin length 22.1;

Rostral, nasal, ethmoid, lateral ethmoid,

first dorsal spine length 10.8; caudal

preorbital, supraorbital, sphenotic, pterotic,

peduncle length 11.3; caudal peduncle

supratemporal,

depth 3.3.

frontal-2,andthird

infraorbital absent.

Coloration. When fresh, based on

Measurements (% SL). Body depth

Yato (2019), body light pinkish; dorsal fin

21.2; body width 11.6; head length 43.8;

with black margin; small black lines andhead depth 21.9; head width 32.6; snout tospots on dorsal surface. When preserved,dorsal fin 44.7; snout to anal fin 53.0;

body creamy white with all black color

snout to anus 47.0; snout length 21.9;

remained.

rostral projection length 16.3; filamentous

Distribution. Known from Indonesia

barbel length 7.3; upper jaw length 17.0;

and the Philippines (Fowler, 1938; Kawailower jaw length 18.1; orbital diameter& Takata, 2008, 2009), and southwestern

11.9; interorbital width 9.9; pectoral-fin

Taiwan (present study).

length 18.0; upper detached pectoral-fin

Remarks. Counts and measurements ofray length 23.1; lower detached pectoral-

the present specimen almost agree with115

Platax 17: 113-117, 2020
doi: 10.29926/platax.202012_17.0008

those of S. clavilapis (Kawai, 2013),
except for 1) the number of bony plates inReferences

the ventral row (23 in the present specimen

Fowler, H. W. 1938. Descriptions of new fishes
obtained by the United States Bureau ofFisheries steamer "Albatross," chiefly in
Philippine seas and adjacent waters.
Proceedings of the United States
National Museum, 85: 31-135.
Fowler, H. W. 1943. Contributions to thebiology of the Philippine Archipelagoand adjacent regions. Descriptions andfigures of new fishes obtained in
Philippine seas and adjacent waters by
the United States Bureau of Fisheries
steamer "Albatross." United States
National Museum Bulletin, 100: i–iii,53-91.
Fricke, R., T. Kawai, T. Yato & H. Motomura.
2017. Peristedion longicornutum, a new
species of armored gurnard from thewestern Pacific Ocean (Teleostei:Peristediidae). Journal of the Ocean
Science Foundation, 28: 90-102.
Kawai, T. 2008. Phylogenetic systematics ofthe family Peristediidae (Teleostei:Actinopterygii). Species Diversity, 13:1-34.
Kawai, T. 2013. Revision of the peristediid
genus Satyrichthys (Actinopterygii:Teleostei) with the description of a newspecies, S. milleri sp. nov. Zootaxa, 3635:419-438.
Kawai, T. 2019. Revision of an armoredsearobin genus Scalicus Jordan 1923
(Actinopterygii: Teleostei: Peristediidae)
with a single new species. IchthyologicalResearch. doi: 10.1007/s10228-01900691-z.
Kawai, T. & H.- C. Ho. 2019. Records of fourspecies of armored searobins (Teleostei:Peristediidae) from Dongsha Atoll in theSouth China Sea. Platax, 16: 67-75.
Kawai, T., H. Imamura & K. Nakaya. 2004.
Paraheminodus kochiensis Kamohara,1957 (Teleostei: Peristediidae), a juniorsynonym of Paraheminodus murrayi(Günther, 1880), with a comparison ofvs. 21‒22 in Kawai, 2013), 2) distancefrom the snout to the anal fin (53.0% SL vs.
53.9‒58.7), and 3) the distance from thesnout to the anus (47.0% SL vs. 48.1–52.4).
Satyrichthys clavilapis was originallydescribedbyFowler(1938)

withspecimens from the Philippines. Since
then, this species had not been reported
before Kawai & Takata (2008) identified
specimens off Java, Indonesia (easternIndian Ocean). Later, Kawai & Takata(2009)

considered

Acanthostedion

rugosum Fowler, 1943, originally from thePhilippines, as a junior synonym of S.
clavilapis. This species has never beenreported since then. Yato in Koeda & Ho(2019) presented the same putative
specimen from southern Taiwan, but wasunable to confidently identify it to species
level. Therefore, this report is the firstrecord of this species from Taiwan andrepresents the northernmost record of thespecies. Those interested in more detailabout this searobin should consult Kawai& Takata (2008, 2009) and Kawai (2013).

Acknowledgements
This study was supported by theMinistry of Science and Technology ofTaiwan and the National Museum ofMarine Biology & Aquarium.
116Platax 17: 113-117, 2020
doi: 10.29926/platax.202012_17.0008

Paraheminodus
murrayiandParaheminodus laticephalus (Kamohara,1952). Ichthyological Research, 51: 7376.
Kawai, T. & Y. Takata. 2008. A rare armoredsearobin,Satyrichthysclavilapis(Actinopterygii, Teleostei, Peristediidae),from off Java, Indonesia, eastern Indian
Ocean. Biogeography, 10: 27-31.
Kawai, T. & Y. Takata. 2009. Satyrichthys
rugosus, a junior synonym of
Satyrichthys clavilapis (Actinopterygii:Teleostei:Peristediidae).
Species
Diversity, 14: 89-96.
Miller, G. C. 1967. A new species of western
Atlantic armored searobin, Peristedion
greyae (Pisces: Peristediidae). Bulletinof Marine Science, 17: 16-41.

Shen, S.-C. 1993. (ed.). Fishes of Taiwan.
Department of Zoology, NationalTaiwan University, Taipei, 960 pp.
Shen, S-C. & K.-Y. Wu. 2011. (eds.). Fishes ofTaiwan. National Museum of Marine andAquarium, Checheng, 896 pp.
Yato, T. 2019. Family Peristediidae. pp. 557570. In: Koeda, K. & H.-C. Ho (eds.).
Fishes of Southern Taiwan. National
Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium,Checheng.

117