《TAIPEI TIMES》 New fish species named after indigenous tattooing

National Sun Yat-sen University distinguished professor Liao Te-yu, left, and doctoral student Jhuang Wei-cheng pose for a photograph in front of images of a new fish species in Kaohsiung on Friday. Photo: Hsu Li-chuan, Taipei Times

By Hsu Li-chuan and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Taiwanese researchers have reported the discovery of a new fish species, naming it Lentipes ptasan after the extinct practice of facial tattooing among Taiwanese indigenous peoples.

National Sun Yat-sen University doctoral student Jhuang Wei-cheng （莊維誠） said on Friday that he and the team first found the species in 2019 while visiting the southern part of Mindanao Island in the Philippines.

He said that the males of the species had two prominent, deeply colored grooves on their faces, closely resembling the facial tattoos of Taiwanese indigenous peoples.

The fish has several male-specific characteristics, including an upper lip protruding beyond the snout, fewer premaxillary tricuspid teeth, two black lines running from the front of the eye through the nostrils to the tip of the snout, a wide brown longitudinal band at the base of the anal fin, and the distinctive nuptial coloration featuring a brown vertical band extending from back to belly on the middle of the body.

Female Lentipes ptasan exhibit orange-reddish patches near their cloaca, Chuang said.

The team used the word ptasan as a nod towards the dual symbolism of face tattoos, which used to be practiced by Taiwanese indigenous people and is still practiced among indigenous populations in the Philippines, as well as the geographical spread of the fish, as it lives in Taiwan and the Philippines, he said.

National Sun Yat-sen University distinguished professor Liao Te-yu （廖德裕） said the species is known from the type locality, Shimen Stream, Yilan, Taiwan, and Bocay-el Falls, in the Philippines.

The discovery of Lentipes ptasan brings the number of known Lentipes species in Taiwan to seven, he said.

The exterior appearance of Lentipes ptasan is very similar to that of Lentipes armatus, a conserved species in Taiwan, Liao said

However, he added that the team had finally determined it was a new species distinct from Lentipes armatus.

The discovery was submitted to the Journal of Fish Biology and was first published on Nov. 21, last year, with Jhuang as the first author, and Cleto L. Nanola Jr., Li Xiao Fei, and Liao cited as co-authors.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES