Family HARPAGIFERIDAE

Museums

Regional Maps

Introduction

Harpagiferids are small, benthic fishes generally restricted to the sub-Antarctic Islands, with one species found along the Antarctic Peninsula. Most are littoral although some species occur to depths of 180 m. They feed on small crustaceans and, although they are of no commercial interest, they are an important prey item of commercially exploited fish stocks (Hureau 1990).

The family comprises one genus with about 11 closely related species (Balushkin 2000; Eastman & Eakin 2000, 2015). Harpagifer species can be difficult to identify and, combined with limited sampling, make determining distributions complicated. Six species are recorded from Australian waters, and an additional two species recorded from Kerguelen Island (H. spinosus and H. nybelini) are also included here as it is likely they are present at nearby Heard and McDonald Islands (Hureau 1990; Prirodina 2000, 2002, 2004). Another species, H. crozetensis Prirodina, 2004, recently described from the more distant Crozet Islands, may also be present at Heard & McDonald Islands but is not included. It is expected that the number of species present in Australian waters will increase with further sampling and taxonomic work. Artedidraconidae was previously considered a subfamily but is currently recognised as a valid family (see Nelson 2006).

General References

Balushkin, A.V. 2000. Morphology, classification, and evolution of notothenioid fishes of the Southern Ocean (Notothenioidei, Perciformes). Journal of Ichthyology 40(Supplement 1): 74-109

Eastman, J.T. & Eakin, R.R. 2000. An updated species list for notothenioid fish (Perciformes; Notothenioidei), with comments on Antarctic species. Archive of Fishery and Marine Research 48(1): 11-20

Eastman, J.T. & Eakin, R.R. 2015. Notothenioid classification and list of species. Ohio University - Faculty of Biomedical Science. http://www.oucom.ohiou.edu/dbms-eastman/Articles/Noto-valid-spp-list15Jan2015.docx [published 15 Jan 2015; accessed on 12 June 2015]

Hureau, J.-C 1990. Harpagiferidae. pp. 357-363 in Gon, O. & Heemstra, P.C. (eds). Fishes of the Southern Ocean. Grahamstown : J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology 462 pp. [357-363]

Nelson, J.S. 2006. Fishes of the World. Hoboken, New Jersey : John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 601 pp. [402]

Prirodina, V.P. 2000. On the systematic position of the littoral and deep-sea species of the genus Harpagifer (Harpagiferidae, Notothenioidei) from Macquarie Island, with description of two new species. Voprosy Ikhtiologii 40(4): 438-446 [In Russian. English translation in Journal of Ichthyology v. 40 (no. 7):488-494]

Prirodina, V.P. 2002. Redescription of littoral and deep-sea species of the genus Harpagifer (Harpagiferidae, Notothenioidei) off islands of the Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean with description of a new species. Journal of Ichthyology 42(9): 701-712 [English translation of Voprosy Ikhtiologii v. 42 (no. 6 ): 731-743]

Prirodina, V.P. 2004. Harpagifer crozetensis sp. nova (Harpagiferidae, Notothenioidei), a new species from the littoral of Crose [Crozet] Islands (Indian Ocean sector of the Antarctic). Voprosy Ikhtiologii 44(3): 419-423 [In Russian. English translation in Journal of Ichthyology 44(5): 395-399]

Common Name References

Hureau, J.-C 1990. Harpagiferidae. pp. 357-363 in Gon, O. & Heemstra, P.C. (eds). Fishes of the Southern Ocean. Grahamstown : J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology 462 pp. [357] (Spiny Plunderfishes)

History of changes