Hemiscyllium strahani Whitley, 1967

White, William T. & Ko’Ou, Alfred, 2018, An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyans of Papua New Guinea, Zootaxa 4411 (1), pp. 1-82 : 20-21

Hemiscyllium strahani Whitley, 1967

Hooded Epaulette Shark

Hemiscyllium strahani Whitley, 1967: 176 , fig. 1. Holotype: AMS IB.7938. Type locality: Incorrectly assumed to be from Port Moresby area by Dingerkus & DeFino, 1983.

Local synonymy: Hemiscyllium strahani Whitley, 1967: 176 , fig. 1 (PNG)— Dingerkus & DeFino, 1983: 46, fig. 34 (Massas Island, Madang); Compagno, 1984: 198 (PNG); Kailola, 1987: 8 (Massas Island, Madang); Compagno, 2001: 182, fig. (eastern PNG); Allen & Erdmann, 2008: 107 (eastern PNG); Allen & Dudgeon, 2010: 29 (eastern PNG); Ebert et al., 2013: 256, pl. 34 (eastern PNG); Allen et al., 2013: 134 (eastern PNG); Fricke et al., 2014: 13, fig. 2 (Madang); Allen et al., 2016: 89, figs (Madang, Wewak); White et al., 2018: 76, figs (PNG).

PNG voucher material: (5 spec.) AMS IB. 7938 (holotype), female 735 mm TL, New Guinea via Taronga Park Zoo Aquarium, received Oct. 1967; IRSNB 18574, adult male, Laing Island, Madang, 4°13.73’ S, 144°56.57’ E, Jan. to Jun. 1976; NTUM 10173, adult male 638 mm TL, south of Urembo Island, 5°15.9’ S, 145°47.1’ E, 18– 27 m depth, 6 Dec. 2012; SMNS 4836, female 668 mm TL, New Guinea; USNM 221701, adult male 594 mm TL, southern tip of Massas Island, Madang, 5°10’ S, 145°50’ E, 6 Nov. 1978.

Remarks: First described based on a New Guinea specimen sent to Taronga Zoo by Whitley (1967). Dingerkus & De Fino (1983) incorrectly assumed the type locality was Port Moresby area but Allen et al. (2016) confirmed this species only occurs in northern New Guinea from Jayapura in West Papua to Madang in PNG.

Recent molecular data (ND2 data) suggest that the West Papua and PNG specimens may represent different species and some coloration differences are evident between specimens from these locations. One specimen, SMNS 4836, has only the location ‘New Guinea’ on the label, but given it was collected by a German collector (Schode) and deposited in a German collection, it is presumed this came from northern PNG when it German New Guinea.