著者

三谷 文夫 Fumio Mitani 京都大学農学部水産学教室 Department of Fishery Faculty of Agriculture Kyoto University

出版者

日本動物学会

雑誌

動物学雑誌 = Doubutsugaku zasshi (ISSN:00445118)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.65, no.2, 1956-02-15

被引用文献数

1

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Having examined in detail 103 specimens of Hippocampus coronatus T. & S. obtained from the coast of Maizuru Bay for about two months from the end of June till that of August, 1955, I have found that the species shows not a few individual variations both in form and coloration. In Table 1 is shown the fluctuation in the number of caudal segments and in Table 2 that of dorsal and pectoral fin rays respectively. In Plate 1 and Figuer 3 are shown degrees of development of tubercles and fleshy appendages spreading like twigs on the surface of the body. The minimum size of the specimens with an elliptical area on the base of the tail having blackish brown pigments, which is a secondary sexual character of males, in 48.0mm. and of incubating males 63.0mm. in total legth, respectively. The species, as aforementioned, varies so greatly both in color and pattern of the body that it is roughly divided into 3 types, as shown in Figure 4; A) Specimens with brown blotches on the ground color of light, dark or orange yellow, B) those which are blackish brown or rather violet all over the body, and C) those with silvery blotches on the ground of uniformly greyish or dark green. The first type has a tendency to appear mainly in the specimens with few fleshy appendages; the secondtype, in the smaller ones with well-developed appendages; and the thirdtype, those including both larger and smaller ones with well-developed appendages. Hippocampus mohnikei Bleeker has been distinguished from H. coronatus T. et S., mainly in having a shorter snout, a lower coronet and more numerous fleshy appendages on the surface of the body. But these differnces between the two may not serve, I presume, for dividing the species into two different ones, as indicated in Figs. 1 and 2 and Table 3. Accordingly, H. mohnikei Bleeker may presumably be regarded as a synonym of H. coronatus T. et S.