First Record of Epinephelus heniochus (Perciformes: Serranidae) from Korea

Introduction

Fishes of the genus Epinephelus Bloch, 1793, are found in tropical and subtropical waters throughout the world, eleven species having been reported from Korean waters (Randall and Heemstra, 1991; Heemstra and Randall, 1993, 1999; Youn, 2002).

Recently, an interesting serranid specimen was collected from Jeju Island, Korea, and subse- quently identified as E. heniochus Fowler, 1904.

Because it is the first record of the species from Korean waters, the specimen is redescribed here- in.

Counting and measuring methods followed Randall and Heemstra (1991) and Heemstra and Randall (1993).

Family Serranidae

Genus Epinephelus Bloch, 1793

(New Korean name: Bol-jul-bari) (Fig. 1) Epinephelus heniochus Fowler, 1904: 522, pl. 18,

upper fig. (type locality: Padang, Sumatera);

Kyushin et al., 1982: 169, fig. 148 (South China Sea); Gloerfelt-Tarp and Kailola, 1984: 132 (4th fig.), 133, 324 (Indonesia; northern Austra-

lia); Katayama, 1984: 131, pl. 116-G (south of Japan); Sainsbury et al., 1985: 130, 131 (4th fig.) (North Australia); Allen and Swainston, 1988: 56, 57 (pl. 305) (North West Shelf of Wes- tern Australia); Randall and Heemstra, 1991:

164, figs. 79, 80 (Japan; Philippines; Gulf of Thailand; New Britain; Australia; Indonesia);

Heemstra and Randall, 1993: 164, figs. 323, 324 (after Randall and Heemstra, 1991); Senou, 1993: 612 (key), 1306; Mohsin and Ambak, 1996: 236, fig. 391, 703 (pl. 137) (South China Sea); Heemstra and Randall, 1999: 2502 (after Randall and Heemstra, 1991); Randall and Lim, 2000: 609 (South China Sea, listed); Se- nou, 2000: 717 (key), 1541; Hutchins, 2001: 30 (Western Australia, listed); Senou, 2002: 717 (key), 1534.

Epinephelus hata Katayama, 1953: 52, figs. 1, 2 [type locality: Nagasaki (bought at Fish Mar- ket), Japan].

Material examined : FAKU (Department of Fisheries, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyoto Univer- sity) 75912, 1 specimen, 176.0 mm SL, Gap’a-ri (bought at Fish Market), Gap’a Island, Daejong- up, Namjeju-gun, Jeju, Korea, longline, 21 May, 2000.

Description : Counts and proportional mea-

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First Record of Epinephelus heniochus (Perciformes:

Serranidae) from Korea

Naoki Yagishita*

, Sang-Rin Jeon** and Tetsuji Nakabo*

*The Kyoto University Museum, Kyoto University, Yoshida, Sakyo, oto 606-8501, Japan

**Faculty of Natural Science, Sang Myung University, Korea

aPresent address: Department of Fisheries and Oceanography, Kyoto Institute of Oceanic and Fishery Science, Odashukuno, Miyazu, Kyoto 626-0052, Japan

An example of Epinephelus heniochus Fowler, 1904, collected from Gap’a-ri, Gap’a Island, Daejong-up, Namjeju-gun, Jeju, Korea in May, 2000, is the first record of the species from Korea. A description of the specimen and a new Korean name “Bol-jul- bari” for the species are included.

Key words : Epinephelus heniochus, grouper, first record, Korea

surements are shown in Table 1.

Body oblong, compressed. Dorsal profile of head convex. Interorbital area slightly convex.

Anterior nostril with short tube, smaller than posterior nostril. Snout profile moderately point- ed. Lower jaw protruding; maxilla reaching to posterior margin of eye. Small, sharp pointed conical teeth in a single row along upper and 2 rows along lower jaw margins, but irregular at front of both jaws; anterior pair of teeth on both jaws, especially on upper jaw, enlarged, canini- form; narrow villiform tooth band medial to outer row of conical teeth on lateral part of upper jaw.

Vomer and palatines with villiform teeth. Oper-

cle with three spines; upper edge relatively strai- ght. Preopercle angular with 4 large spines at corner, posterior edge serrate.

Dorsal fin membranes of spinous portion not- ched; 4th spine longest, shorter than longest soft ray. Soft-rayed portion of anal fin higher than spinous portion. Pectoral fin round, middle ray longest. Caudal fin round. Scales on body ctenoid, without auxiliary scales. Each lateral line scale with a single tubule.

Color in alcohol : Body dark brown dorsally, paler brown below. Tip of snout blackish-brown.

Head with three indistinct oblique blackish strip- es; one from eye to end of opercle, another from

Fig. 1. Epinephelus heniochus. FAKU 75912, 176.0 mm in standard length, Gap’a-ri, Gap’a Island, Daejong-up, Namjeju -gun, Jeju, Korea.

Table 1. Counts and proportional measurements of Epinephelus heniochus

Present study Fowler (1904) Randall and Heemstra Katayama (1953)

Number of specimens Holotype (1991) E. hata

1 1 16^a 5^b

standard length (mm) 176.0 229 101~268 230~249

Counts

Dorsal fin rays XI, 14 XI, 15 XI, 14~15 XI, 14~15

Anal fin rays III, 8 III, 8 III, 8 III, 8

Pectoral fin rays 17 17 16~18 17

Pelvic fin rays I, 5 I, 5 I, 5 -

Lateral line scales 61 52 54~60 58~62

Lateral scale series 101 87 89~100 -

Gill rakers 9±17 7±13 7~9±14~16 8~10±14~16

In % of standard length

Body depth 29.9 31.6 31.7~37.0 31.8~34.8

Head length 41.6 42.9 41.7~44.4 41.3~44.1

In % of body depth

Body width 49.1 - 47.6~57.1 -

In % of head length

Snout length 23.6 23.8 22.2~25.6 24.3~26.5

Longest dorsal fin spine length 28.1 27.3 26.7~33.3 27.0~29.2

Pectoral fin length 52.3 55.5 52.6~62.5 56.5~61.3

Pelvic fin length 44.1 41.7 42.6~52.6 43.9~44.2

aIncluding 1 paratype of E. hata

bholotype and 4 paratypes

lower edge of eye to subopercle, a third from lower edge of preorbital to interopercle. Dorsal and anal fins pale brown. Pectoral fin pale brown, dark brown proximally. Pelvic fin pale brown, anterior margin dark brown. Caudal fin brown.

Distribution : Known from northern Austra- lia, New Britain, Indonesia, Gulf of Thailand, Viet Nam, the Philippines, western Kyushu, Japan (Randall and Heemstra, 1991; Heemstra and Randall, 1993, 1999) and Jeju Island, Korea (present study).

Remarks : The Korean specimen agreed well with the original description of Epinephelus heniochus by Fowler (1904) and specimens des- cribed as that species by Randall and Heemstra (1991), in having 14 dorsal fin soft rays, 8 anal fin soft rays, 17 pectoral fin rays (Table 1), 2 lower jaw tooth-rows, 4 large spines at corner of preopercle, notched interspinous dorsal fin mem- branes, round caudal fin, lateral line scales with a single tubule, 3 brown stripes on head and no prominent color markings on body.

However, the specimen differed somewhat from the original description of E. heniochus in upper jaw dentition, and counts of lateral line scales (61 vs. 52), lateral scale series (101 vs. 87) and gill rakers (9±17 vs. 7±13) (Table 1). We con- firmed a single row of conical teeth along the upper jaw margin, with a narrow villiform tooth band medial to the former on the lateral part of the jaw. On the other hand, Fowler (1904) des- cribed conical teeth arranged in 2 rows on the upper jaw of the holotype of E. heniochus. Accord- ing to Fowler (1904), inner row teeth on the upper jaw were small. Randall and Heemstra (1991) did not refer to upper jaw dentition in the species.

Clearly, the variations in jaw dentition in this species need to be considered further. The ranges of counts of lateral line scales, lateral scale series and gill rakers for 16 specimens in Randall and Heemstra (1991) (54 ~60, 89~100 and 7~9±

14~16, respectively; Table 1) fall between those of the present specimen and the holotype of E.

heniochus. In all three counts, however, the dif- ferences between the specimens are slight (1~2), most likely representing intraspecific variations.

Katayama (1953) described E. hata, based on 5 specimens from Nagasaki, Japan. Since Kataya- ma (1984), E. hata has been synonymized with E.

heniochus (Randall and Heemstra, 1991; Heem- stra and Randall, 1993, 1999; Senou, 1993, 2000, 2002). The type locality of E. hata is not too dis- tant from Jeju, Korea, and the upper jaw denti-

tion in E. hata matches that of the specimen reported here.

Acknowledgements

We thank G. S. Hardy (Ngunguru, Whangarei, New Zealand), who kindly read the initial manu- script and offered helpful comments.

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108 Naoki Yagishita, Sang-Rin Jeon and Tetsuji Nakabo

Received : April 7, 2003 Accepted : May 26, 2003

한국산 능성어과 어류 1미기록종

Epinephelus heniochus

*The Kyoto University Museum, Kyoto University, Japan, **상명대학 자연과학부^,

a현재주소: Department of Fisheries and Oceanography, Kyoto Institute of Oceanic and Fishery Science, Odashukuno, Miyazu, Kyoto 626-0052, Japan

2000년 ⁵월 ²¹일 제주도 남제주군 대정읍 가파리⁽가파도⁾에서Epinephelus heniochus Fowler, 1904의 표본 ¹개체가 채집되었다^. 이 표본을 본 종의 한국에 있어서의 첫 기록이기에 기재를 행 하고 신한국명^“볼줄바리^”를 제창하였다^.