THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AND FAUNAL CHARACTERISTICS OF COTTOID FISHES OF CHINA

The Cottoid fishes of China are represented by 14 families, 67 genera and 115 species. The family Cottidae is represented by 7 genera and 10 species, Liparidae by 1 genus and 3 species, Cyclopteridae by 1 genus and 1 species, Agonidae by 1 genus and 1 species, Hexagrammidae by 2 genera and 3 species, Scorpaenidae by 18 genera and 35 species, Platycephalidae by 10 genera and 15 species, Parabembridae by 1 genus and 1 species, Bembridae by 1 genus and 1 species, Hoplichthyidae by 1 genus and 2 species, Triglidae by 3 genera and 10 species, Peristediidae by 4 genera and 6 species, Synanceiidae by 6 genera and 14 species, and Aploactidae by 10 genera and 13 species.The faunal composition of the Cottoid fishes of China is best represented by the family Scorpaenidae, and next in importance is the family Platycephalidae. In the third place, the families Aploactidae, Synanceiidae and Triglidae are also fairly well represented, while the representation of the other 9 families is very weak.The Cottoid fishes of China may be refered to four types: (1) the warm-water type, comprising 53 species (46.2% of the total); (2) the warm-temperate, 40 species (34.7%); (3) the cold-temperate, 19 species (16.5%); (4) the cold-water, 3 species (2.6%). Hence, the representation of the warm-water and the warm-temperate elements of Chinese Cottoid fishes is comparatively strong in number of genera and species, but that of the cold-water and the cold-temperate elements is very weak. For instance, there are only 10 species of cottidae in China, but about 170 species are found in northern Japan, Korea and in the Far East Seas of USSR; only a single species of Cyclopteridae and 3 species of Liparidae in China, but about 20 species of the former and 70 species of the latter are distributed in the neighbourhood of the north-western Pacific; only one species of Agonidae had been recorded in China, but there are over 50 species in the North Pacific. Besides, there are 6 families distributed to other cold-water regions of the World, which are not represented in China.The fresh-water Cottoid fishes of China are represented only by 5 species of Cottidae, 1 being cold-water and 4 cold-temperate species, distributed mainly in the northeastern district. The marine Cottoid fishes of China are represented by 110 species, being most abundant in the South China Sea area having altogether 84 species, of which 52 are the warm-water and 33 the warm-temperate species, without cold-temperate and cold-water elements. The East China Sea area comes next in having 44 species, of which 10 are the warm-water, 27 the warm-temperate and 7 the cold-temperate species, lack- ing the cold-water elements. The Yellow Sea area has the smallest number of only 29 species, of which 3 are the warm-water, 10 the warm-temperate, 14 the. cold-rtemperate and only 2 the cold-water species.Of the 115 species of the Cottoid fishes represented in Chinese waters, 12 species are common in occurrence along the whole coast, 20 species in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, 8 species in the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea. 55 species are confined to the South China Sea, 6 species to the East China Sea, and 10 species to the Yellow Sea.The Cottoid fishes of China are closely related to those of the neighbouring countries, but there are obvious differences as well. There are as many as 72 species distributed in common to both China and Japan, of which 16 are peculiar to those two countries; 32 species to both China and Korea, of which 1 is confined to those two countries; 31 species to both China and Philippines, of which 2 are confined to those two countries; 36 species to both China and Indonesia, of which only 1 species is peculiar to those two countries. There are 8 endemic species in China, about 98 in Japan, only 1 in Korea, 39 in Philippines and 25 in Indonesia.The cold-temperate and cold-water species of Japan are numbering as many as over 200, because the coast of northern Japan is under the influence of the cold currents, whereas there are only 22 cold-water and cold-temperate specie