Journal Article
On the morphology of Mekong blind sole Typhlachirus elongatus (Soleidae) with notes on the taxonomy of the genus Typhlachirus
Evseenko, S.A. and Bolshakov, D.V.
Record Number:
4176
Year:
2018
Journal:
Journal of Ichthyology
Pages:
688-693
Volume:
58
Notes:
Translated into English from the original Russian text published in Voprosy Ikhtiologii 58:553-559
Abstract:
The family Soleidae includes 182 species (Eschmeyer and Fong, 2018); among them, only two rare aberrant species are completely devoid of both eyes or have only one highly reduced lower eye. Mekong blind sole from the coastal waters of Southeast
Asia and Indonesia (Malaysia) is known only by a few specimens, and there are very few data on their morphology (Károli, 1882; Hardenberg, 1931b; Pellegrin
and Chevey, 1940; Chabanaud, 1948). There is still no consensus on the taxonomic status of Mekong blind soles. At present, both species are referred to the
same genus, Typhlachirus Hardenberg, 1931 (T. caecus Hardenberg, 1931, and T. elongatus Pellegrin et Chevey, 1940) (Desoutter et al., 2001a; Lapierre,
2007) or T. elongatus is individually considered as a species included in the genus of Brachirus Swainson, 1839 (Munroe, 2000; Kottelat, 2013). However, these
taxonomic solutions were taken without considering the results of the revision of the genus Typhlachirus that was carried out by Chabanaud 70 years ago (Chabanaud,
1948). Since these fishes are very rare and poorly studied, the capture of three Mekong blind sole individuals in the Mekong River delta is of considerable interest. We
identified them as T. elongatus, previously known only by two specimens from the estuary of the Mekong River (Pellegrin and Chevey, 1940). This study describes their morphology and discusses problems of the taxonomy of the genus Typhlachirus.
Times Cited:
3