Squaliolus Smith & Radcliffe

Ebert, David A., White, William T., Ho, Hsuan-Ching, Last, Peter R., Nakaya, Kazuhiro, Séret, Bernard, Straube, Nicolas, Naylor, Gavin J. P. & De Carvalho, Marcelo R., 2013, An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyans of Taiwan, Zootaxa 3752 (1), pp. 279-386 : 298-299

Genus Squaliolus Smith & Radcliffe in Smith, 1912

Pygmy sharks / ḇqḛé

Squaliolus Smith & Radcliffe in Smith, 1912: 684. Type species: Squaliolus laticaudus Smith & Radcliffe, 1912 , type by original designation.

Squaliolus aliae Teng, 1959

Smalleye Pygmy Shark / Ñmḇqḛ

Squaliolus alii Teng, 1959c: 1 , pl. 1. Holotype: TFRI 3837, female 187 mm TL, off Tung-Kang, Taiwan, ~ 330 m depth. Name corrected to aliae by Sasaki & Uyeno (1987) because this species was named after the describer's wife.

Local synonymy: Squaliolus alii: Teng, 1959c: 1 , pl. 1; Teng, 1962: 171, fig. 43; Chen, 1963: 94; Chen & Yu, 1986: 113; Shen, 1984a: 67, fig.; Shao et al., 2008: 237; Ho & Shao, 2011: 19; Shen & Wu, 2011: 86, fig. Squaliolus laticaudus: Chen & Joung, 1993: 40 , pl. 3.1; Shen & Wu, 2011: 86, fig.

Taiwan voucher material: (76 spec.) TFRI 3837 (Holotype), female 187 mm TL, 22°26'N, 120°30'E, Dong-gang (examined by DAE April 1988); CSIRO H 6296-05 (12 spec.), 100–125 mm TL, CAS 235391, ~ 120 mm TL, UF 159376, ~ 120 mm TL, Da-xi, 25 May 2005; CSIRO H 6297-04 (15 spec.), 100–117 mm TL, Da-xi, 26 May 2005; MNHN 2013-0406 (tissue accession GN 9911), female 227 mm TL, Da-xi, 14 Mar 2012; HUMZ 213798 (tissue accession GN 10004), female 241 mm TL; HUMZ 213797 (tissue accession GN 10005), adult male 202 mm TL, HUMZ 213796 (tissue accession GN 10006), female 103 mm TL, HUMZ 213799 (tissue accession GN 10007), female 104 mm TL, Da-xi, 14 Mar 2012; CSIRO H 7397-01, female 215 mm TL, CSIRO H 7403-03, female 205 mm TL, Da-xi, 14 Mar 2012; MNHN 2013-0407 (18 spec.), 95–115 mm TL, 22°26'N, 120°30'E, Dong-gang, 18 Mar 2012; MNHN 2013-0408, female 225 mm TL, off Kaohsiung, 22°32′N, 120°07′E, 320 m depth, 21 Mar 2012. Remarks: This species was described by Teng (1959c), but subsequently synonymised by Seigel et al. (1977) and Seigel (1978). Sasaki & Uyeno (1987) revisited the issue and concluded that S. aliae was a valid species, separable from S. laticaudus . Most subsequent authors have considered S. aliae to be a valid species, although Shen & Wu (2011) lists both species as occurring in Taiwanese waters. Squaliolus aliae is not uncommon at landing grounds in Da-xi and Dong-gang, but to our knowledge S. laticaudus has not been confirmed from Taiwan.

Conservation status: Least Concern.