Sicarius
Well-Known Member
Dear readers,
Some might know me as a taxonomy nerd, and others might think I have no morals because I go pretty far in my photography by visiting illegally held private animals. What I'm doing is a project to establish a database with the widest possible diversity of (sub)species. I do not have the budget of National Geographic, but the concept is similar to their Photo Ark.
Along the way of creating my database, I have come across lots of changes in taxonomy, incorrect identifications and more. I have tried to correct such problems with Zootierliste, but not everything made it through (although most did). I have also made several corrections in the Photo Ark of Joel Sartore. In this thread, I hope to inform others with a big interest in taxonomy about recent discoveries. I hope that others can share their findings here as well, so 'species collectors' like myself can make their life lists as accurate as possible.
In short, this thread exists to keep others updated on taxonomic changes or discoveries that affect animals in captivity.
The following is a quick list of things I can think of right now:
- The famous aquarium fish Diana's hogfish (Bodianus diana) is in fact much more rare in captivity than first thought. The commonly occurring variant of this species is Bodianus dictynna. This species is easily distinguished by the black anal fin. The read Diana's hogfish is more reddish and the anal fin is also fully red.
- The very popular isopod genus Merulanella is incorrectly identified. The real Merulanella isopods are not kept in captivity. The fancy new species imported from Vietnam belong to a closely related genus that is not yet described by science. Here's a list of isopods in captivity that will confirm my statement: American Isopod and Myriapod Group - List of Species in Commerce
- The king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) was split into four different species just this week. Two of these, the real O. hannah from China and the O. bungarus from Malaysia, are seen in zoos worldwide. The vast majority of king cobras in captivity belong to the Sunda Plate species Ophiophagus bungarus.
- The popular aquarium catfish genus Corydoras changed completely recently. The once very big genus was split into several smaller ones. Here's a full list of the new names: Log in to Facebook
- A similar thing happened to the Crenicichla pike-cichlids. The paper: Revision of the generic classification of pike cichlids using an integrative phylogenetic approach (Cichlidae: tribe Geophagini: subtribe Crenicichlina)
- The pleco species Chaetostoma spec. L 455, which is commonly kept in the aquarium trade, was named this week: Chaetostoma sacramento.
- The 'mousedeer headache' is a very interesting article on the taxonomy of mouse deer in captivity, especially in Europe. The population we keep here should be labelled as Tragulus kanchil affinis, based on their original import to Poznan from Indochina (likely Thailand). The species has been incorrectly identified for many years. Here's the article: The mousedeer headache
- The same website, created by National Geographic's producer Pierre de Chabannes, states the complexity of the genus Hydrosaurus in captivity. These sailfin lizards are commonly held in zoos worldwide, but almost always labelled wrongly. Especially species Hydrosaurus amboinensis seems to be very rare under human care and the vast majority of them are Hydrosaurus weberi. Article: Indonesian Hydrosaurus
- The Yellow-headed geckos (Gonatodes albogularis) that we have in European zoos belong to the subspecies fuscus. This subspecies is easily distinguished from the others by their darker bluish body colours and an orange head.
- The so-called Island imperial pigeons (Ducula pistrinaria) kept and bred in aviculture across Europe are most likely to be a subspecies of Ducula aenea. The most logical subspecies is sylvatica from India, which is how I labelled them myself.
- The Silver distichodus (Distichodus affinis) in captivity are incorrectly identified and belong to Distichodus altus. Source: Geradsalmler - Aqualog.de
- The lavender-blushed dartfish (Nemateleotris lavandula) was split from Nemateleotris helfrichi last year and so the name in captivity also belongs to the former. The real N. helfrichi is not kept in aquariums.
- All of the African quailfinches (Ortygospiza atricollis) that can be currently found in Europe belong to the subspecies ansorgei. That includes the birds at Hagenbeck that are incorrectly labelled as nominate subspecies.
- The black band disk tetra (Myloplus schomburgkii) was recently split into several species, all of which ended up in aquariums over the years. Both the real M. schomburgkii as the new M. sauron are commonly found in the trade but farm-bred hybrids are potentially spreading as well. Be careful naming these to species level. Paper: https://novataxa.blogspot.com/2024/06/myloplus.html
- Recently, the population of long-nosed potoroos in Europe was examined and turned out to be of pure subspecies origin. Potorous tridactylus apicalis is the new correct taxonomic name. This means, with the import of Australian animals to Hamerton, that there are now two subspecies represented in Europe.
Some might know me as a taxonomy nerd, and others might think I have no morals because I go pretty far in my photography by visiting illegally held private animals. What I'm doing is a project to establish a database with the widest possible diversity of (sub)species. I do not have the budget of National Geographic, but the concept is similar to their Photo Ark.
Along the way of creating my database, I have come across lots of changes in taxonomy, incorrect identifications and more. I have tried to correct such problems with Zootierliste, but not everything made it through (although most did). I have also made several corrections in the Photo Ark of Joel Sartore. In this thread, I hope to inform others with a big interest in taxonomy about recent discoveries. I hope that others can share their findings here as well, so 'species collectors' like myself can make their life lists as accurate as possible.
In short, this thread exists to keep others updated on taxonomic changes or discoveries that affect animals in captivity.
The following is a quick list of things I can think of right now:
- The famous aquarium fish Diana's hogfish (Bodianus diana) is in fact much more rare in captivity than first thought. The commonly occurring variant of this species is Bodianus dictynna. This species is easily distinguished by the black anal fin. The read Diana's hogfish is more reddish and the anal fin is also fully red.
- The very popular isopod genus Merulanella is incorrectly identified. The real Merulanella isopods are not kept in captivity. The fancy new species imported from Vietnam belong to a closely related genus that is not yet described by science. Here's a list of isopods in captivity that will confirm my statement: American Isopod and Myriapod Group - List of Species in Commerce
- The king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) was split into four different species just this week. Two of these, the real O. hannah from China and the O. bungarus from Malaysia, are seen in zoos worldwide. The vast majority of king cobras in captivity belong to the Sunda Plate species Ophiophagus bungarus.
- The popular aquarium catfish genus Corydoras changed completely recently. The once very big genus was split into several smaller ones. Here's a full list of the new names: Log in to Facebook
- A similar thing happened to the Crenicichla pike-cichlids. The paper: Revision of the generic classification of pike cichlids using an integrative phylogenetic approach (Cichlidae: tribe Geophagini: subtribe Crenicichlina)
- The pleco species Chaetostoma spec. L 455, which is commonly kept in the aquarium trade, was named this week: Chaetostoma sacramento.
- The 'mousedeer headache' is a very interesting article on the taxonomy of mouse deer in captivity, especially in Europe. The population we keep here should be labelled as Tragulus kanchil affinis, based on their original import to Poznan from Indochina (likely Thailand). The species has been incorrectly identified for many years. Here's the article: The mousedeer headache
- The same website, created by National Geographic's producer Pierre de Chabannes, states the complexity of the genus Hydrosaurus in captivity. These sailfin lizards are commonly held in zoos worldwide, but almost always labelled wrongly. Especially species Hydrosaurus amboinensis seems to be very rare under human care and the vast majority of them are Hydrosaurus weberi. Article: Indonesian Hydrosaurus
- The Yellow-headed geckos (Gonatodes albogularis) that we have in European zoos belong to the subspecies fuscus. This subspecies is easily distinguished from the others by their darker bluish body colours and an orange head.
- The so-called Island imperial pigeons (Ducula pistrinaria) kept and bred in aviculture across Europe are most likely to be a subspecies of Ducula aenea. The most logical subspecies is sylvatica from India, which is how I labelled them myself.
- The Silver distichodus (Distichodus affinis) in captivity are incorrectly identified and belong to Distichodus altus. Source: Geradsalmler - Aqualog.de
- The lavender-blushed dartfish (Nemateleotris lavandula) was split from Nemateleotris helfrichi last year and so the name in captivity also belongs to the former. The real N. helfrichi is not kept in aquariums.
- All of the African quailfinches (Ortygospiza atricollis) that can be currently found in Europe belong to the subspecies ansorgei. That includes the birds at Hagenbeck that are incorrectly labelled as nominate subspecies.
- The black band disk tetra (Myloplus schomburgkii) was recently split into several species, all of which ended up in aquariums over the years. Both the real M. schomburgkii as the new M. sauron are commonly found in the trade but farm-bred hybrids are potentially spreading as well. Be careful naming these to species level. Paper: https://novataxa.blogspot.com/2024/06/myloplus.html
- Recently, the population of long-nosed potoroos in Europe was examined and turned out to be of pure subspecies origin. Potorous tridactylus apicalis is the new correct taxonomic name. This means, with the import of Australian animals to Hamerton, that there are now two subspecies represented in Europe.
. Ver intersting indeed, really like to know when taxonomic changes are made. You could do this updates often, so taxonomic reds, like us, could satiate our hunger for more knowledge.
