Taxonomic Study And Zoogeographic Characteristics Of Siganidae Of The China Seas

Rabittfishes of the Siganidae (Pisces: Perciformes: Acanthuroidei)are widelydistributed in the East China Sea, the South China Sea and the continental coast ofTaiwan in China.The present study deals with the comparative morphology, classification andzoogeographic characteristics of the Chinese siganid fishes, which based on thespecimens collected by the Institute of Oceanology, Chinesese Academy of Sciencesduring 1951--2005 and the new results of study obtained by scientists of the world. Inthe paper the author describes 11 species of Siganidae ,which are distributed in theChina seas and belongs to one genus and two subgenera. The conclusions of thisstudy are summarized as follows:1.Thirteen species of Siganidae have been reported from Chinese waters.Eleven species of them could be comfirmed to occur in the China seas, the other twospecies: Siganus vermiculatus and S. punctatissimus, which had been recorded asChinese species by authors ( Wang, 1958;Chen, 1969, Shen, 1984 )without any information of studied materials. The occurrence of S. unimaculatus inChinese waters should also be confirmed by further studies on the base of furthercollections. 2. Morphological studies have shown that differences in external features such asthe body form, color pattern, teeth, skull, vertebrae, otolith, etc., have been foundamong different siganid species;These characteristics could be used effectively forspecies identification. But for identification of those species with similar externalfeatures, internal characteristics should be used for comparison in the study.3. Zoogeographic characteristics analysis showed that: a). All the eleven speciesrecorded in China Seas are widely distributed in Indo-Pacific coastal waters. Noendemic species have been found. b). Siganus canaliculatus and Siganus fuscescensare distributed in the East China Sea, the South China Sea and the continental coast ofTaiwan, Siganus fuscescens has also been recorded in the Yellow Sea. They havelarger population;With the exception of Siganus corallinus, which is only distributedin the South China Sea, all the other species are existed in the South China Sea andthe continental coast of Taiwan. They have smaller population. c). The speciescomposition of the siganid fauna of the China seas is similar to that of theIndo-Malaysian fauna, such as the Seas of Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, wherenot only all of the Chinese species are distributed, but also another 5 more species arefound. The species composition is also similar to that of Japanese waters. TwoChinese species have not yet been found from the coasts of Japan. Only 1 Japanesespecies has not been recorded from the China seas.4. Concerning the systematic position of Siganidae, the author's viewpoint is tokeep the family in the Suborder Acanthuroidei, but not in the suborder Siganoidei,which has long been widely adopted by Chinese ichthyologists. The family includes 1genus: Siganus Forssk?l, 1775, and 2 subgenera, Siganus Forssk?l, 1775 and Lo Seale,1906.The list of Chinese species of the family Siganidae is given below. Those markedwith " * " are species distributed in Chinese waters. Those marked with " ●" arespecies, which have been recorded from China previously, but no specimen depositioncould be found to confirm their existence in the China seas;and those marked with"" are species which has been illustrated with Siganus vulpinus by Chen and Cai(1994), Chen (1997) and Shen (1993), so we suspect that this species also exists inChina seas.List of the world species of Siganus Forssk?l, 1775Subgenus Siganus Forssk?l, 17751. *Siganus spinus (Linnaeus, 1758)2. *Siganus javus (Linnaeus, 1766)3. Siganus rivulatus Forssk?l, 17754. Siganus stellatus Forssk?l, 17755. *Siganus fuscescens (Houttuyn, 1782)6. *Siganus guttatus (Bloch, 1787)7. *Siganus canaliculatus (Park, 1797)8. *Siganus punctatus (Schneider, 1801)9. *Siganus argenteus (Quoy et Gaimard,1825)10. Siganus luridus (Rüppel, 1829)11. Siganus doliatus Cuvier, 183012. *Siganus corallinus (Valenciennes, 1835)13. Siganus lineatus (Valenciennes, 1835)14. Siganus sutor (Valenciennes, 1835)15. ●Siganus vermiculatus (Valenciennes, 1835)16. *Siganus virgatus (Valenciennes, 1835)17. *Siganus puellus (Schelegel, 1852)18. Siganus labyrinthodes (Bleeker, 1853)19. ●Siganus punctatissimus Fowler et Bean, 192920. Siganus trispilos Woodland et Allen, 197721. Siganus puelloides Woodland et Randall, 197922. Siganus randalli Woodland, 1990Subgenus Lo Seale, 190623. *Siganus vulpinus (Schlegel et Müller, 1845)24. Siganus unimaculatus (Evermann et Seale, 1907)25. Siganus uspi Gawel et Woodland, 1974: 85926. Siganus magnificus (Burgess, 1977)27. Siganus niger Woodland, 1990...