Gastrophysus, Muller, 1843

Jelks, Howard L., 2018, Resolving the status of the genera Gastrophysus and Geneion in the family Tetraodontidae (Teleostei: Tetraodontiformes), Zootaxa 4532 (2), pp. 288-292 : 288-289

Gastrophysus

Müller (1843) introduced Gastrophysus to replace Physogaster which was preoccupied by an insect genus. Bleeker (1865:45–47), while proposing a revision to Tetraodontiformes into six genera ( Canthogaster, Chonerhinus, Ephippion, Leiodon, Crayracion , and Tetraodon ), specified types from lists of species in both Swainson (1839:328) and Müller (1843:330). Bleeker picked the first species in those lists as the representative type species for those authors. Tetraodon oblongus Bloch 1786 preceded T. lunaris Bloch 1786 in Müller (1843) for Gastrophysus . Bleeker (1865) chose Tetraodon testudineus Linnaeus 1758 as the type for Tetraodon and he considered Gastrophysus to be yet another synonym of Tetraodon .

In his monograph titled “The Fishes of the Inland Waters of Southeast Asia,” Kottelat (2013) used the genus Gastrophysus Müller 1843 to include G. niphobles ( Jordan & Snyder 1901), G. oblongus ( Bloch 1786) , and G. ocellatus ( Linnaeus 1758) . He stated, “ Gastrophysus has been used as a valid name after 1899 (e.g., Smith 1949: 418; Munro 1955: 280) and therefore precedence over Takifugu cannot be reversed under Code art. 23.9.” However, the Smith (1949) reference only used Gastrophysus for G. sceleratus , G. lunaris , and G. spadiceus . Those taxa are now recognized as Lagocephalus sceleratus ( Gmelin 1789) , L. lunaris ( Bloch & Schneider 1801) , and L. spadiceus ( Richardson 1845) . Further, Smith also used the genus Torquigener for T. oblongus ( Bloch 1786) which weakens Kottelat’s claim for recognition of Gastrophysus as valid. The Munro reference was not listed in the Kottelat (2013) citations, but likely refers to “The Marine and Freshwater Fishes of Ceylon ” ( Munro 1955), in which Gastrophysus was used for sceleratus and lunaris and Torquigener for T. oblongus .

Tyler (1964) discussed Gastrophysus and concluded that the type species would either have been Tetrodon oblongus Bloch 1786 or Tetrodon lunaris Bloch and Schneider 1801 which were recognized then as Torquigener oblongus and Lagocephalus lunaris , respectively. In “The Genera of Fishes,” Jordan (1919) listed Gastrophysus Müller 1843 with orthotype Tetraodon lunaris L. as a substitute for Physogaster Müller (preoccupied by a Coleopteran) and considered it to be a synonym of Lagocephalus Swainson 1839 . Tyler (1964) concluded that Gastrophysus Müller 1843 should be the appropriate generic name for all puffers then assigned to Lagocephalus Swainson 1839 . Tyler (1966) reversed that opinion after becoming aware of Bonaparte’s (1841) designation of Tetraodon lagocephalus Linnaeus 1758 as type of the genus Lagocephalus and Bonaparte’s synonymization of L. pennantii Yarrell 1836 with L. lagocephalus . Finally, Tyler (1980) followed the classification of Shipp (1974) in descriptions of osteology and phylogeny of Lagocephalus , thus agreeing with the synonymization of Gastrophysus .

While Kottelat is correct that Gastrophysus Müller 1843 has been used since 1899, it was a name associated with species that are now all considered to be species of Lagocephalus Swainson 1839 . By rule of precedence, Gastrophysus is a junior synonym of Lagocephalus . Note that in Figure 1 , Pieter Bleeker (1863) published an illustration of Gastrophysus laevigatus . This species is currently valid as Lagocephalus laevigatus ( Linnaeus 1766) ( Eschmeyer et al. 2017) . Clearly the Tetrodon (= Tetraodon ) oblongus depicted ( Fig. 2 ) in Bloch (1785) is very different in shape and pigmentation from the more pelagic Gastrophysus (= Lagocephalus ) puffers.

Matsuura (2015) in his review of Tetraodontiformes used Takifugu Abe 1949 for 25 species of puffers that would have been assigned to Gastrophysus had he followed Kottelat (2013). Matsuura proposed suppressing Gastrophysus to avoid confusion of puffers, underpinning an economically valuable fishery and potential safety issues due to tetraodontitoxins. To date, no formal appeal has been filed with the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. In my opinion, there is no need to request suppression of Gastrophysus as it is a junior synonym of Lagocephalus . Takifugu was described as a subgenus of Sphoeroides by Abe (1949) using Tetrodon oblongus Bloch 1786 as the type. Matsuura (1990) elevated Takifugu Abe 1949 to the generic level to maintain nomenclature stability.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Illustration of Gastrophysus laevigatus from Bleeker (1863). This species is valid today as Lagocephalus laevigatus (Linnaeus 1766) (Eschmeyer et al. 2017).

FIGURE 2. Tetrodon oblongus and T. rostratus from Bloch (1786) Naturgeschichte der Ausländischen Fische. These species are valid as Takifugu oblongus (Bloch 1786) and Canthigaster rostratus (Bloch 1786) (Eschmeyer et al. 2017).