| Bostrychus expatria | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Gobiiformes |
| Family: | Butidae |
| Genus: | Bostrychus |
| Species: | B. expatria |
| Binomial name | |
| Bostrychus expatria (Herre, 1927) | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Bostrychus expatria is a species of freshwater fish in the family Butidae endemic to Lake Manguao on the island of Palawan in the Philippines. [2]
Bostrychus expatria is a small fish reaching a length of 14.4 centimetres (5.7 in). They appear as standard members of their family, with non-hydrodynamically-shaped bodies typical of bottom-dwelling fish. It possesses two completely separate dorsal fins, the first one supported by spines. The caudal fin is truncately-shaped, usually not much thicker than the peduncle itself. Its eyes are located dorsally, another trait commonly seen in benthic fish. [3]
Bostrychus expatria has a single known population that can be found only in Lake Manguao in the Philippines. Lake Manguao is a freshwater lake located in the hilly areas in the northern part of the Philippine island of Palawan. The lake has at least four brooks draining into it, yet it has no rivers draining out from it. O. expatriata shares the lake with at least two other endemic species of fish from the family Cyprinidae. [4]
Owing to the remoteness of its habitat, there have been extremely few studies on this species. The few ones that have been done describe the fish as a benthic species, spending much of its time resting on the lake's bottom. Despite its size, B. expatriata is predatory, known to feed mostly on the small crustaceans that make the lake's muddy bottom their home. It has also been known to ingest small fishes. [2]
As a small freshwater fish in an island with rich marine resources, B. expatria has no known commercial value. The fish may be caught as bycatch by small cast nets as fishing in the lake is done by the local population. It is known as bulokot by the natives living around the lake. [2]
In 1996, the World Conservation Monitoring Centre assessed the fauna of Lake Manguao and B. expatria (as Boroda expatria) was classified as VULNERABLE. As B. expatria has one known population in a single freshwater lake, its fate is inextricably tied to its home lake's. The fish population is extremely vulnerable to anthropogenic disturbance such as pollution and overfishing, and a slight disturbance to the balance of the lake could send the species to extinction. [1] In theory, the entire island of Palawan has been declared a wildlife preserve which should ensure the survival of the species, but wildlife laws are rarely enforced or followed in the country. [5]
Tilapia, a fish known for disrupting and destroying the natural balance of the ecosystems it invades, was introduced into the lake in 1992. The presence of this voracious species may drive B. expatria into extinction. [4]
The species name, expatria was originally chosen by Herre to describe the fish as an expatriate. [3]
Bostrychus expatria was originally described by Herre as Boroda expatria. Boroda was derived from the Visayan word borod, which was used by the natives of the lake to refer to goby-like fishes. [6] The name remained until 1997 when it was redesignated into the genus Bostrychus (as Bostrychus expatria) by Eschmeyer. [7]
Lake Lanao is a large ancient lake in the province of Lanao del Sur, Philippines. With a surface area of 340 km2 (130 sq mi), it is the largest lake in Mindanao, the deepest and second largest lake in the Philippines, and counted as one of the 15 ancient lakes in the world. Scholars have been pushing for the lake's inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The lake's native people call themselves the Maranao or Meranaw. Their name was derived from the name of the lake, meaning "the people living around the lake".
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Eucyclogobius newberryi, the northern tidewater goby, is a species of goby native to lagoons of streams, marshes, and creeks along the coast of California, United States. The northern tidewater goby is one of six native goby species of California. It is protected under the Endangered Species Act as an endangered species of the United States since 1994.
The longjaw mudsucker is a species of goby found along the Pacific coast of California and Baja California. Known for its distinctive elongated jaws and robust body, this species can reach up to 21 cm in length, making it one of the larger gobies in its habitat. Adapted to estuarine environments, the longjaw mudsucker has evolved to survive short periods out of water, utilizing tidal mudflats and sloughs as its primary habitat.
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Barbodes is a genus of small to medium-sized cyprinid fish native to tropical Asia. The majority of the species are from Southeast Asia. Many species are threatened and some from the Philippines are already extinct. A survey carried out in 1992 only found three of the endemic Barbodes species, and only two were found in 2008. Several members of this genus were formerly included in Puntius.
The dwarf pygmy goby or Philippine goby is a tropical species of fish in the subfamily Gobionellinae from brackish water and mangrove areas in Southeast Asia. It is one of the smallest fish species in the world. Males reach maturity at a standard length of 0.9 cm (0.35 in) and can reach up to 1.1 cm (0.43 in) in standard length, while the females can grow up to 1.5 centimetres (0.59 in) in total length. Adults weigh around 4 milligrams (0.00015 oz). It is known as bia and tabios in the Philippines.
Lake Manguao is a lake located in the northernmost region of the island of Palawan in the Philippines. It harbors several endemic species of fish, such as the sleeper goby Oxyeleotris expatria.
Bostrychus is a genus of fishes in the family Butidae mostly native to eastern Asia to Australia with one species being found along the Atlantic coast of Africa. While some of these species are restricted to freshwater, most can be found in marine, fresh and brackish waters.
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The leaf goblinfish is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a waspfish belonging to the subfamily Tetraroginae, which is classified as part of the family Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfishes and their relatives. This is the only species in the monotypic genus Neovespicula. It is found in coastal habitats of the Indo-West Pacific region.
Coregonus bavaricus, the Ammersee kilch, is a species of freshwater whitefish endemic to Lake Ammersee in the German state of Upper Bavaria. A small, silver-colored fish, it typically lives between 60–85 m (197–279 ft) deep, though shallower in the summer months. In the early 20th century the Ammersee kilch was an important commercial species, but its population declined drastically in the 1930s onward due to overfishing and eutrophication of the only lake in which it is found. Today it is listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and may be on the verge of extinction.
The wildlife of the Philippines includes a significant number of endemic plant and animal species. The country's surrounding waters reportedly have the highest level of marine biodiversity in the world. The Philippines is one of the seventeen megadiverse countries and is a global biodiversity hotspot. In 2013, 700 of the country's 52,177 species were listed as threatened.
The western tubenose goby is a species of goby native to fresh waters of the Black Sea and Aegean Sea basins. It has recently spread as an invasive species to Central and Western Europe and to North America. Previously Proterorhinus semilunaris was considered as a junior synonym of Proterorhinus marmoratus, but was confirmed as a distinct species based on molecular analysis.
Rhinogobius carpenteri is a freshwater species of goby endemic to the Philippines. Its common name in the Philippines is kuchu. The species was named for the co-collector of the cotypes, Mr. W. D. Carpenter. In 1927, Albert William Christian Theodore Herre erected a new genus in the family Gobiidae, Tukugobius and moved R. carpenteri into it as the type species, but the genus was later rendered invalid.
Schismatogobius insignus is a species of goby endemic to the Philippines. It is a small fish, growing to a maximum length of only 4.4 cm (1.7 in). It is found in coastal marine, brackish, and freshwater habitats.
Sardinella tawilis is a freshwater sardine found exclusively in the Philippines. It is the only member of the genus Sardinella known to exist entirely in fresh water. Locally, they are known in Filipino as tawilis.
Butidae is a family of sleeper gobies in the order Gobiiformes. The family was formerly classified as a subfamily of the Eleotridae but the 5th Edition of Fishes of the World classifies it as a family in its own right. Molecular phylogenetic analyses have demonstrated that the Butidae are a sister clade to the clade containing the families Gobiidae and Gobionellidae and that the Eleotridae is a sister to both of these clades. This means that the Eloetridae as formerly classified was paraphyletic and that its subfamilies should be raised to the status of families.
Stiphodon atropurpureus, commonly referred to as the Philippine neon goby or blue neon dwarf goby, is a ray-finned fish of the Gobiidae family. It is native to parts of Asia, including the Philippines, China, Japan, Vietnam and Indonesia.
