Ariosoma majus
Creators: name: Smith, David G.
name: Ho, Hsuan-Ching
name: Huang, Jian-Fu
name: Chang, Yong-Hsu
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Actinopterygii
Anguilliformes
Congridae
Ariosoma
Ariosoma majus

description: Ariosoma majus (Asano, 1958)
MAjOR SHORT-TAIL CONgER; 大錐體糯鰻
FIgS. 8, 9A; TAbLE 2
Alloconger shiroanago major ASaNO, 1958:191 (Off SHIbuSHI, KagOSHIma PrEfEcTurE, JaPaN). LEE & YaNg, 1966:55, fIg. 3.
Alloconger major ASaNO, 1958: CHEN & WENg, 1967:47. CHEN, 1969: 132. SHEN 1984:112. CHEN & Yu, 1986:252. SHaO et al., 2008:239.
Ariosoma shiroanago major (ASaNO, 1958): SHEN, 1998a:10.
Ariosoma major (ASaNO, 1958): HO et al., 2010: TabLE 1. HO et al., 2015a: TabLE 3. HO et al., 2015b:144.
Material examined. 41 SPEcIMENS, 130‒470 MM TL (* MEANS ONLY MERISTIc DATA uSED). CAS 15924 (1, 319), TAIWAN STRAIT, cA. 90 M, 16 JuL. 1971. * CAS 51112 (1, 245), SOuTHWESTERN KAOHSIuNg, 71‒91 M, 18 JuL. 1972. NMMB-P1406 (1, 423, fORMERLY THUP 3149), TANIAN, 10 FEb. 1966. *NMMB-P1795 (1, 249), DAxI, 9 SEP. 2003. NMMB-P3174 (1, 316), KAOSHIuNg, NO DATE. NMMB-P11898 (1, 323), DAxI, 20 JAN. 2011. NMMB-P11904 (2, 286‒297), DAxI, 21 JAN. 2011. NMMB-P11919 (4, 236‒330), NAN-fANg-AO, 11 MAR. 2011. *NMMB-P14075 (1, 270), DONg-gANg, 10 Aug. 2011. *NMMB-P14095 (1, 321), NAN-fANg-AO, 13 SEP. 2011. NMMB-P14181 (1, 320), NAN-fANg-AO, 13 SEP. 2011. NMMB-P16140 (1, 265), NAN-fANg-AO, 9 JuL. 2010. *NMMB-P16474 (1, 196), NANfANg-AO, 9 MAY 2012. * NMMB-P21750 (1, 252), PENgHu, 1 Aug. 1957. *NMMB-P23351 (4, 245‒334), 31 MAR. 2016. NMMB-P24421 (1, 291), KE-Tzu-LIAO, 15 JuL. 2016. NMMB-P24786 (3, 225-248), KE-Tzu-LIAO, 31 MAR. 2016. NMMB-P25257 (1, 213), DONg-gANg, 26 APR. 2015. *NMMB-P25290 (1, 255), KE-Tzu-LIAO, 31 OcT. 2016. *NMMB-P26364 (1, 130), KE-Tzu-LIAO, 23 JuN. 2017. NMMB-P26717 (1, 241), KE-Tzu-LIAO, 17 Aug. 2017. NMMB-P26983 (1, 235), KE-Tzu-LIAO, 29 MAR. 2017. NMMB-P27611 (1, 254), KE-Tzu-LIAO, 6 MAR. 2017. USNM 398442 (1, 470), DAxI, 27 SEP. 2006. USNM 398511 (1, 323), DAxI, 6 NOV. 2009. USNM 398800 (1, 229), NANfANg-AO, 18 NOV. 2009. USNM 437332 (3, 273‒329), KE-Tzu-LIAO, 12 MAR. 2015. OTHER LOcALITIES. USNM 71876 (1, 307), MISAkI, JAPAN, 1906. USNM 76543 (1, 116), KARuIzAWA, JAPAN, Aug. 1914. USNM 179752 (1, 253), TOkYO MARkET, JAPAN, 1906.
Diagnosis. BODY cOLOR LIgHT, WITH NARROW bLAck MARgIN ON VERTIcAL fINS; INDISTINcT WHITE bANDS AcROSS DORSAL SuRfAcE Of HEAD; SNOuT bLuNT; VOMERINE TEETH IN A LONg bAND, AbOuT HALf TO 2/3 Of LENgTH Of MAxILLARY TOOTH ROW; PREANAL VERTEbRAE 51‒55, TOTAL VERTEbRAE 140‒149; PREANAL LATERAL-LINE PORES 50‒55, TOTAL LATERAL-LINE PORES 132‒147.
Description. BODY STOuT, ANuS SLIgHTLY bEfORE MIDLENgTH, DORSAL-fIN ORIgIN WELL bEfORE gILL OPENINg. JAWS MODERATE LONg, uPPER jAW PROjEcTINg SLIgHTLY bEYOND TIP Of LOWER jAW, INTERMAxILLARY TEETH PARTLY cONcEALED WHEN MOuTH cLOSED. EYE WELL DEVELOPED, MIDDLE Of EYE OVER RIcTuS. SNOuT LONg, RELATIVELY bLuNT ANTERIORLY.
TEETH SMALL, cONIcAL, MuLTISERIAL; MAxILLARY AND INTERMAxILLARY TEETH cONTINuOuS, THOSE ON INNERMOST ROW Of MAxILLARY bLuNT. VOMERINE TEETH SHARP ANTERIORLY, fOLLOWED bY LARgE AND STOuT TEETH, fORMINg A NARROW ELONgATE PATcH ENDINg bEHIND MIDPOINT Of MAxILLARY TOOTH PATcH.
BODY uNIfORMLY WHITISH OR YELLOWISH gRAY, SLIgHTLY PALER VENTRALLY, DORSAL AND ANAL fINS WITH A VERY THIN bLAck MARgIN. HEAD AND SNOuT EITHER LIgHT cOLOR OR WITH INDISTINcT bANDS.
Remarks. Ariosoma majus IS VERY SIMILAR TO A. shiroanago buT DIffERS fROM THE LATTER IN HAVINg fEWER TOTAL VERTEbRAE AND LATERAL-LINE PORES. IT IS ALSO SIMILAR TO A. anago IN HAVINg A VERY SIMILAR VERTEbRAL fORMuLA AND NuMbER Of LATERAL-LINE PORES. HOWEVER, IT DIffERS fROM THE LATTER IN HAVINg A bLuNTER SNOuT, VERY NARROW DARk MARgINS ON THE VERTIcAL fINS AND LAckINg INDISTINcT bARS AcROSS THE DORSAL SuRfAcE Of THE HEAD.
THIS SPEcIES WAS ORIgINALLY DEScRIbED IN Alloconger, WHIcH IS MAScuLINE. Ariosoma, HOWEVER, IS NEuTER, AND THE NEuTER fORM Of major IS majus. THE SPEcIES MuST THEREfORE bE kNOWN AS Ariosoma majus.
description: Published as part of Smith, David G., Ho, Hsuan-Ching, Huang, Jian-Fu & Chang, Yong-Hsu, 2018, The congrid eel genus Ariosoma in Taiwan (Anguilliformes: Congridae), with description of a new species, pp. 84-106 in Zootaxa 4454 (1) on pages 96-98, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4454.1.10, http://zenodo.org/record/1446524