• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.205-216
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• 2018

Taxonomic review of the genus Saurida, belonging to the family Synodontidae, was conducted based on three species (S. macrolepis, S. microlepis and S. wanieso) collected from Korea between 1994 and 2017, and one species (S. elongata) loaned from Japan. S. wanieso can be readily distinguished from S. tumbil by following characteristics: outer palatine teeth (2 rows in S. wanieso vs. 3~4 rows in S. tumbil) and pectoral fin length (reaching to pelvic - dorsal line in S. wanieso vs. not reaching to pelvic - dorsal line in S. tumbil). In counts, the four Saurida spp. are well distinguished: number of lateral line scales (48~50 in S. macrolepis vs. 54~58 in S. wanieso vs. 61~62 in S. elongata vs. 63~70 in S. microlepis), vertebrae (47~49 in S. macrolepis vs. 51~53 in S. wanieso vs. 57~59 in S. elongata vs. 62~64 in S. microlepis). The present study suggests S. undosquamis and S. tumbil must be absent in Korean waters, and also S. elongata may be rare or absent in Korean waters. Here we use the Korean name, "tum-bil-mae-tung-i" for S. wanieso, following Yamada et al. (1995) who treated Korean S. tumbil as S. wanieso.