Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
 | 
Online Publication Date: Jun 02, 2017

A New Species of Freshwater Eel-tailed Catfish of the Genus Tandanus (Teleostei: Plotosidae) from Coastal Rivers of Mid-northern New South Wales, Australia

,
,
, and
Page Range: 229 – 236
DOI: 10.1643/CI-16-547
Save
Download PDF

Tandanus bellingerensis, new species, is described based on specimens from four river drainages (Bellinger, Macleay, Hastings, and Manning rivers) of the mid-northern coast of New South Wales, Australia. Previously, three species were recognized in the genus Tandanus: T. tropicanus of the wet tropics region of northeast Queensland, T. tandanus of the Murray-Darling drainage and coastal streams of central-southern Queensland and New South Wales, and T. bostocki of southwestern Western Australia. The new species is distinguished from all congeners by a combination of the following morphologic characters: a high count of rays in the continuous caudodorsal and anal fins (range 153–169, mode 159), a high count of gill rakers on the first arch (range 35–39, mode 36), and strongly recurved posterior serrae of the pectoral-fin spine. Additionally, results from previously conducted genetic studies corroborate morphologic and taxonomic distinctness of the new species.

  • Download PDF
Copyright: © 2017 by the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists
<bold>Fig. 1. </bold>
Fig. 1. 

Tandanus bellingerensis, holotype, male, AMS I.47180-001, 439 mm SL, Bellinger River at mouth of Kip Creek on Darkwood Road, approx. 26 km W of Bellingen, NSW, 30°26′39.8″S, 152°37′14.1″E.


<bold>Fig. 2. </bold>
Fig. 2. 

Dorsal and ventral body views of Tandanus bellingerensis, holotype, male, 439 mm SL.


<bold>Fig. 3. </bold>
Fig. 3. 

Serration of pectoral-fin spine of Tandanus bellingerensis, holotype, male (scale bar = 10 mm, illustration by S. A. Welsh).


<bold>Fig. 4. </bold>
Fig. 4. 

Drainage basin locations of Tandanus bellingerensis (Bellinger, Macleay, Hastings, and Manning rivers), T. tropicanus of the wet tropics region (Daintree, Mulgrave-Russell, Johnstone, and Tully rivers, and Five Mile Creek), T. tandanus of the Murray-Darling Basin, T. tandanus from eastern coastal rivers (Fitzroy-Dawson, Burnett, Mary, Brisbane, Tweed, Richmond, and Clarence), and T. bostocki from western coastal rivers (Moore-Hill, Swan, and Serpentine). This figure was adapted from Welsh et al. (2014).


<bold>Fig. 5. </bold>
Fig. 5. 

Plot of the second sheared principal component (SPC2) from the morphometric analysis vs. the first principal component (PC1) of the meristic analysis of T. bellingerensis (▪), T. tropicanus (▴), T. bostocki (♦), T. tandanus of the Murray-Darling drainage (•), and T. tandanus from eastern coastal drainages: Brisbane, Burnett, Mary, and Richmond (○), Fitzroy (⋄), Clarence (□), and Tweed (▵).


Contributor Notes

Associate Editor: D. Buth.

Received: Nov 08, 2016
Accepted: Feb 23, 2017