臺灣的海鯰科魚類分類學研究

Abstract

海鯰科（Ariidae）屬於熱帶及亞熱帶沿岸之底棲性魚類，棲息在海域、潟湖、河口等鹹水或半淡鹹水域。根據臺灣過去文獻與魚類資料庫（陳，1954b；陳與于，1985；沈與吳，2011；邵，2022），海鯰科魚類在臺灣海域共有3個屬12個種的紀錄。海鯰科魚類在臺灣西半部沿海較為常見，東至宜蘭大溪漁港，南至屏東東港均有捕獲紀錄。由於本科物種間形態特徵差異不大，且缺乏詳細形態特徵描述，因此常造成分類學上的困難。本研究以外部形質與骨骼重新檢視臺灣的海鯰科各物種，同時，利用COI基因比對同屬物種。本研究共收集337個標本；檢視各博物館標本共187個標本；與採集243個COI序列。根據外部形態與骨骼，例如上頷齒齒板、頭背中線溝、側篩骨、囪門與上枕骨骨突等形態，可將臺灣收集的標本區分成三群海鯰科物種。除本實驗採集標本的COI序列，同時加入NCBI上的同屬海鯰COI序列，使用鄰近連接法建構海鯰科3個屬的樹形圖，其結果支持臺灣海鯰科三屬物種各為單系群。目前數據支持臺灣的海鯰科僅有3屬3種，其中海鯰屬的斑海鯰（Arius cf. maculatus），多齒海鯰屬的雙線多齒海鯰（Netuma bilineata），褶囊海鯰屬的內爾褶囊海鯰（Plicofollis nella）。

Sea catfishes are benthic fish in the tropical and subtropical coasts, which are common in the west coast of Taiwan. They live in salty or brackish waters such as lagoons and estuaries and inhabit at depths of 50-100 meters. Three genera and twelve species of sea catfishes have previously been recorded in the “Fish Database of Taiwan”. Due to the overlapping morphological characteristics among the species and the lack of complete morphological descriptions, there has been a substantial difficulty in its taxonomy. This study re-examined the Ariidae species in Taiwan based on both external morphology and DNA sequence. A total of 337 specimens were collected from 11 sites in Taiwan, mainly from Wenzi (Changhua), along with 187 specimens in the eight major museum collections. The morphological characteristics useful in distinguishing the species are: 1. tooth patches of upper jaw; 2. lateral fenestra; 3. lateral ethmoid; 4. dorsomedial head groove. In addition, the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) COI gene was used for species delineation. The morphological and DNA data suggest only three distinct species within each of the three genera, namely Arius cf. maculatus, Netuma bilineata, and Plicofollis nella.