Halaelurus Gill

William T. White, Peter R. Last & John D. Stevens, 2007, Halaelurus maculosus n. sp. and H. sellus n. sp., two new species of catshark (Carcharhiniformes: Scyliorhinidae) from the Indo-West Pacific., Zootaxa 1639, pp. 1-21 : 1

publication ID

z01639p001

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:84152FF4-E49B-4049-A9FC-E558F585D210

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6243375

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/18BCF7C1-682C-6E5A-2191-58B6EAD8C0AB

treatment provided by

Thomas

scientific name

Halaelurus Gill
status

 

[[ Genus Halaelurus Gill View in CoL View at ENA   ZBK ]]

The genus Halaelurus   ZBK , proposed by Gill (1862) for Scyllium buergeri Mueller & Henle, 1838   ZBK , consists of 5 described species: H. boesemani Springer & D’Aubrey, 1972   ZBK , H. buergeri Mueller & Henle, 1838 , H. lineatus Bass, D'Aubrey & Kistnasamy, 1975   ZBK , H. natalensis (Regan, 1904) and H. quagga (Alcock, 1899) (Compagno, 1988; Compagno et al., 2005). The closely related genus Bythaelurus Compagno, 1988   ZBK , previously a subgenus of Halaelurus   ZBK , comprises 7 described species: B. alcocki (Garman, 1913) , B. canescens ( Guenther, 1878) , B. clevai ( Seret, 1987) , B. dawsoni (Springer, 1971) , B. hispidus (Alcock, 1891) , B. immaculatus (Chu & Meng in Chu et al., 1982) and B. lutarius (Springer & D’Aubrey, 1972) . Members of the genus Bythaelurus   ZBK differ from species of Halaelurus   ZBK in having eyes not noticeably elevated on head vs. noticeably elevated on dorsal surface of head; gill slits not elevated above lateral head margin vs. elevated above lateral head margin; body soft with thin skin vs. body firm with thick skin; precaudal tail about 0.8-0.9 of precloacal length vs. 0.5-0.6 of precloacal length (Compagno, 1988). Representatives of the genus Bythaelurus   ZBK are typically uniformly dark in coloration and have a scattered distribution in upper to lower slope regions of the Eastern Pacific and Indian Ocean, with a single species occurring in the Western Pacific. Members of the genus Halaelurus   ZBK have an attractive colour pattern and occur essentially in the Indo-West Pacific, from South Africa to Japan and Australia, in insular and continental shelf regions (Compagno, 1988; Compagno et al., 2005).

Recent market surveys in eastern Indonesia produced a large collection of scyliorhinid catsharks, along with many other chondrichthyans. Included in this material were 28 individuals of a catshark that was originally identified tentatively as Halaelurus buergeri . Comparison of these Indonesian Halaelurus   ZBK with material from northwestern Australia revealed two new species that differ significantly from other currently recognised members of the genus. This paper provides descriptions of these new species.

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