Bulletin Zoölogisch Museum UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM Vol.12 No. 1 1989 Zoogeography of the fishes from Indochinese Inland waters with an annotated check-list Maurice Kottelat Contents Introduction 1 and 2 Geographical scope terminology Check-list 3 Discussion A. Generalities 21 B. Inter-basin connections ; 34 C. Heuristic comments on some ichthyogeographical theories involving South-East Asia 37 Bibliography 43 INTRODUCTION Smith (1945) for Thailand, Taki (1974) for the Mekong According to an unpublished bibliography of Indochi- basin in Laos and Kottelat (1985) for the cyprinids of nese freshwater fishes that I completed, 930 native Kampuchea. Day (1875-78, 1888) is still the last com- fish species are known to occur in the inland waters plete reference to Burmese and Indian fishes; Jaya- of the Indochinese Peninsula, certainly making it one ram (1981) presents a more recent compilation for In- of the areas with the most diverse ichthyofauna. diaand Burma, but as far as Burma is concerned, the The study of this rich fish fauna is still in the discov- coverage cannot be satisfactory as the author had ac- ery and survey stage and there is presently no up-to- cess only to material collected before 1940. Mohsin & date reference work for this area. There are few use- Ambak’s (1983) book on western Malaysian fishes ful identification guides for the various countries: suffers from several important flaws (see for example 2 Zakaria-Ismail, 1983) and appears to be merely a Fonds National Suisse pour la Recherche Scienti- summary of the [few] specimens collected by the au- fique. thors. At the border of our area, Weber & de Beau- fort’s (1913-1916) monographs on Cypriniformes and AND Siluriformes are still the major source of information GEOGRAPHICAL SCOPE TERMINOLOGY The is the fish fauna on Indonesian freshwater fishes; Inger & Chin (1962) present discussion centered on of the Peninsula, the and Salween ba- present a useful reference for Sabah. Chevey & Le- Malay Mekong reference for sins outside of the Chao and Mae masson (1937) is the classical fishes of China, Phraya the Red River basin; the recent book by Mai Dinh Khlong basins in Thailand and coastal streams in the natural Yen (1978) on fishes of northern Viet Nam should re- intervening areas. This is not a unit, but these limits set conditions which place it, but there are several drawbacks to a wider are by political prevent work in some basins. The basins in use of it: the nomenclature is outdated, it does not adjacent adjacent take into consideration works done in the Chinese the Indochinese Peninsula (Red River, Irrawaddy) will be dealt with in Red River basin, it uses names first published (?) in only more general discussions. In and this government reports and which are not available and geographic zoogeographic literature, has been known it has an almost confidential distribution (not to men- area as Indochinese Peninsula, re- tion the language problems which is recurrent when spectively Indochinese Subregion, since last century. working with South-East Asian litterature)(Kottelat, in According to Prashad (1929), this terminology has opress). Systematic ichthyology in South China is been introduced by Crosse & Fischer (1876:335) as Indo-Chinoise'. In recent some biolo- now progressing at an accelerated pace and beside province years, to word not recently published books on fishes of Guangxi gists were unwilling use the Indochina, for but because it is simi- (Anon., 1981) and Hainan (Anon., 1986), a book on precise biological reasons, very Yunnanesefishes is in press. lar to the former Indochine Française (a name first in- The present work is a tentative to summarize the troduced in 1888 for the reunion of former French col- in available data on fish taxonomy and fish distribution onies and protectorates South-East Asia: in the Indochinese Peninsula. The relations of this Cochinchina, Annam, Tonkin, Cambodia, Laos [from fauna with its counterparts in adjacent waters will also 1893] and Kouang-Tcheou-Wan territory [from 1900 be discussed. to 1943]). Considering its unambiguous etymology It seemed to me of interest to of produce a study (between India and China) and its long use in geo- the state of the art of systematic ichthyology and zoo- graphical, geological and biogeographical literature, in South-East Asia at time when geography a some by western as well as local scientists (e.g. Lekagul & of the borders of tighest the world are opening again, McNeely, 1977; Gressitt.1970), I see every reason for if it is At time when rich- even only slightly. a natural using it, at least as a geographical term. It has the ness and diversity is vanishing quickly, especially in great advantage of clarity (the Peninsula between In- the tropical areas, there is an acute need for ex- dia and China) and conciseness (shorter than the within and all borders. changing information, through vague 'mainland South-East Asia' or than the enu- The most basic need for exchanging biological infor- meration of included countries and parts of countries). mation is a consistent of nomenclature, which, Moreover, there has never been a proposal for a sub- be reached course, can only by in-depth systematic stitute name, or none which has been widely accept- research. It seems that the Oriental ichthyofauna is ed. now attracting interest again and it appeared worth to Malay Peninsula is used for Western Malaysia and survey the state of the art of our knowledge in fish Peninsular Thailand south of the Isthmus of Kra. systematics and distribution in this area. This is the Krupp (1987:233) found the term Oriental best actual way to catalogue needs. "somewhat misleading since it may refer to any re- the final of the of this During stages preparation gion between the Middle East and Japan". He pro- work, from I was supported by grant 83.501.0.87 posed the name Indoasiatic as a substitute; Indoa- 3 siatic should refer "to the 'Indian' parts of Asia: India, strictly to whole taxonomie units. For example, Ostari- Indochina and Indonesia, thus covering exactly the ophysi are mostly primary division freshwater fishes, Ariidae and Plotosidae and the area which is presently ascribed to the Oriental re- but the catfish families South gion". For various reasons, I can not follow him: 1) I subfamily Aspredininae of Aspredinidae (a American the East found that there must be very important reasons for family) are peripheral or marine; which have Asian Tribolodon also in salt replacing the names of old concepts met cyprinid genus occurs the Oriental waters. On the other hand, some species and a very wide and general usage; Region genera families in freshwa- (or Oriental Realm) is one of them; since its introduc- of otherwise marine occur only the Go- tion by Wallace (1876) it has been widely used and ters, far upstream from the sea (for example accepted; 2) I do not find Oriental misleading; 3) in- biidae Rhinogobius chiengmaiensis, R. mekongianus, troduction of an unnecessary replacement name is etc.). following list includes all fishes which have just likely to create misunderstanding; 4) it is not clear The collected in inland of the Indochinese what is meant by the "Indian" part of Asia; apparently been waters pe- ninsula above. As usual in similar this only refers to the root Indo- in Indochina and In- as defined listings, had be set. The most ambigu- donesia; 5) the Oriental Region also includes the Phi- some arbitrary limits to is the limit between fresh and marine lippine Islands (and South China and Taiwan for most ous one always of and the Oriental waters. I thought it better to be too inclusive than too groups plants animals); 6) Region exclusive and decided include estuaries not does not include Indonesia east of Sulawesi; 7) there I to (but Oriental Lake in Peninsu- is already another replacement name for the plume waters). Songkhla (Tale Sap) lar Thailand a problem with its different Realm of Wallace: Blanford (1901) suggested to use posed specific whose varies in and time; Elwes (1873) Indo-Malaya, a name which has not sub-basins salinity space the divisions of Sirimontaporn been adopted (see comment by Mani, 1974:700). using topographical fishes of sub-basins IV, V and VI are includ- Toponymy for Thailand and eastern Burma follows (1984), ed. In these sub-basins, the water is either fresh all the official transcription on the 1501 S 1:250.000 ser- the or brackish in the dry season only. ies of topographic maps of Thailand, except for the year The distribution in the various basins is recorded by Mekong (alternative spellings and names: Mékong, the following abbreviations (Fig.1): MA, Malay Penin- Mae Khong, Mae Nam Khong, Ménam Khong, Mae- sula (Western Malaysia and Peninsular Thailand); S, kong, Lancantsang, Lancang-jiang) and Salween Mae Khlong basin; CP, Mae Nam (Salouln, Salouen, Mae Nam Salawin, Nu-jiang), for Salween basin; MK, Chao Praya basin; ME, Mekong basin; SE, coastal which the usual English names and spellings have streams of South-East Thailand and Kampuchea; A, been retained for clarity. coastal streams of Annam. Distribution is not indicat- ed if the species is euryhaline. Some special habitats CHECK-LIST are indicated as follow: eur, euryhaline (occasional Myers (1949, 1951) distinguished freshwater fishes immigrants, brackish waters, estuarines, etc.); mon, into primary, secondary and peripheral divisions ac- montane (range restricted to hill stream; cave, species cording to their tolerance of salt water. Primary fresh- restricted to subterranean waters. Our poor knowl- fishes freshwater fishes which of the of water are obligatory edge, or lack of knowledge, ecology most are physiologically unable to enter saltwater and are species precludes a thorough listing of habitat prefer- freshwater thus unable to cross seas.