Geographical Distribution of Siluriform Fishes in China

The classification of Chinese siluriform fishes has long been in chaotic condition.A lot of erroneous records and misidentification took place either at species or generic taxa.The chaotic condition was enhanced by the fact that the collections were sporadic and incomplete,and that the types deposited in foreign museums were not easy to access.These odjective conditions greatly restricted our vision on the geographical distribution of Chinese siluriform fishes.It was not until the end of 1987 that a systematic revision of the Chinese siluriform fishes was completed jointly by the author and others.The result of systematic revision makes the geographical analysis possible.So far,the Chinese siluriform fishfauna comprises 11 families,28 genera,111 species.These figures is greatly increased in comparison with historical records.The distribution of siluriform families in China is shown in Tab.2.The distribution of Siluridae is the widest,including 9 species,distributed in 5 regions,12 subregions,mainly concentrating in East China Region and South China Region.Next to Siluridae is Bagridae,including 29 species,distributed in 4 regions,10 subregions,mainly concentrating in East China Region and South China Region.The family Sisoridae involved 44 species is the most abundant one,distributed in 3 regions,mainly in South China Region.The distribution of siluriform fishes in China is shown in Tab.3.The Nukiang-Lanchang Subregion is the most abundant including 44 species,Pearl River Subregion the next including 34 species,Kiang-Huae Subregion the third including 25 species,West Sichuan Subregion the fourth including 22 species,Chekiang-Fukien Subregion the fifth including 20 species.So far as the region is concerned,the South China Region is the most abundant in species.Consequently,the author assums that the South China Region is the distributional center of Chinese siluriform fishes.