ONE NEW RECORD GENUS AND THREE NEW RECORD SPECIES OF SNAKE EELS (OPHICHTHIDAE:ANGUILLIFORMES) FROM TAIWAN

Authors

Yung-Chieh Chiu, Department of Aquaculture, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan, R.O.C. Center of Excellence for the Oceans, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan, R.O.C.
James Lin, Department of Aquaculture, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan, R.O.C. Center of Excellence for the Oceans, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan, R.O.C. Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei 115, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Hong-Ming Chen, Department of Aquaculture, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan, R.O.C. Center of Excellence for the Oceans, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan, R.O.C.Follow

Abstract

The tropical and subtropical eel family Ophichthidae are the most diverse Anguilliformes fishes which occupy a variety of marine habitats such as reefs, sand and mud substrates. In Taiwan, we can often collect them from the capture of bottom-trawl fishery. In this study, we added two new recorded species Ophichthus machidai and O. obtusus of ophichthid eels collected from Da-xi fish market by comparing their morphological measurements, vertebral counts and head pores with the other six species of the genus Ophichthus: O. apicalis, O. aphotistos, O. asakusae, O. erabo, O. tsuchidae, O. urolophus. We also obtained a unique specimen from Tong-gang fish market and we identified this specimen as Skythrenchelys zabra, it would be the new recorded genus and species in Taiwan as well.

Recommended Citation

Chiu, Yung-Chieh; Lin, James; and Chen, Hong-Ming (2013) "ONE NEW RECORD GENUS AND THREE NEW RECORD SPECIES OF SNAKE EELS (OPHICHTHIDAE:ANGUILLIFORMES) FROM TAIWAN," Journal of Marine Science and Technology: Vol. 21: Iss. 7, Article 25.
DOI: 10.6119/JMST-013-1220-10
Available at: https://jmstt.ntou.edu.tw/journal/vol21/iss7/25