Pusey Bradley J, Fisher Clemency, Maclaine James
TropWATER - Centre for Tropical Water and Aquatic Ecosystem Research, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, 4811, Australia.; Email:
Vertebrate Zoology at World Museum, National Museums Liverpool, Liverpool L3 8EN, United Kingdom.; Email:
Zootaxa. 2016 Oct 2;4173(1):75-84. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.4173.1.7.
The Australasian Saratoga (Pisces: Osteoglossidae) is currently recognised as comprised of two species Scleropages leichardti and S. jardinii. The Prussian explorer Ludwig Leichhardt (1813-c.1848) collected specimens of both species on his first major expedition across northern Australia but believed at the time that all specimens collected were from within one species. Details of the fate of these specimens are unclear as is the geographic origin of those specimens that ultimately made their way into museum collections. Günther's 1864 description of the Southern Saratoga S. leichardti, purportedly from the Fitzroy River in Queensland to which it is restricted (although he erred and listed it as the Burdekin River) is meagre and inconsistent with contemporary accounts of the morphology of this species. It is also inconsistent with a subsequent description by de Castelnau in 1876 of the supposedly synonymous Osteoglossum guntheri. Finally, the description of S. leichardti by Günther is largely consistent with meristic and morphometric information within Saville-Kent's (1892) description of the wide-spread Northern Saratoga S. jardinii. On balance, these inconsistencies, doubt about the provenance and geographic origin of type material and provenance of the original descriptions all strongly suggest that Günther based his description of S. leichardti on material collected from within the range of the more widespread taxon currently recognised as S. jardinii. A revision of the Australian species within the genus Scleropages is warranted.
澳大拉西亚硬骨舌鱼（硬骨舌鱼目：骨舌鱼科）目前被认为由两个物种组成，即利氏硬骨舌鱼（Scleropages leichardti）和贾氏硬骨舌鱼（S. jardinii）。普鲁士探险家路德维希·利查德特（1813年 - 约1848年）在他首次穿越澳大利亚北部的主要探险中收集了这两个物种的标本，但当时他认为所有收集到的标本都属于同一个物种。这些标本的命运细节尚不清楚，最终进入博物馆收藏的那些标本的地理来源也不清楚。1864年，京特对南方硬骨舌鱼（S. leichardti）的描述据称来自昆士兰州的菲茨罗伊河（尽管他有误，将其列为伯德金河），但内容稀少，与该物种形态的当代描述不一致。这也与1876年德卡斯特尔诺对据称是同义的冈氏骨舌鱼（Osteoglossum guntheri）的描述不一致。最后，京特对利氏硬骨舌鱼的描述在很大程度上与萨维尔 - 肯特（1892年）对分布广泛的北方硬骨舌鱼（S. jardinii）的描述中的可数性状和形态测量信息一致。总体而言，这些不一致之处、对模式标本的来源和地理起源的疑问以及原始描述的出处都强烈表明，京特对利氏硬骨舌鱼的描述是基于从目前被认为是贾氏硬骨舌鱼的更广泛分类单元范围内收集的材料。对硬骨舌鱼属内的澳大利亚物种进行修订是必要的。
