Check List 18(3): 455-461, doi: 10.15560/18.3.455
New record of the Japanese Seahorse Hippocampus mohnikei Bleeker, 1853 (Syngnathiformes: Syngnathidae) in Hong Kong waters
expand article infoSam King Fung Yiu‡§, Cher Fuk Yat Chow§|, Steven Hong Tai Tsang§, Xiong Zhang, Jeffery Tzu Hao Chung§, Shadow Ying Tung Sin#, Wing Kuen Chow#, Leo Lai Chan§
‡ Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon, Hong Kong§ State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong| Scottish Oceans Institute, School of Biology, University of St Andrew, St Andrew, United Kingdom¶ Project Seahorse, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada# Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Corresponding author: Leo Lai Chan ( leochan@cityu.edu.hk )

Academic editor: Kar-Hoe Loh
© Sam King Fung Yiu, Cher Fuk Yat Chow, Steven Hong Tai Tsang, Xiong Zhang, Jeffery Tzu Hao Chung, Shadow Ying Tung Sin, Wing Kuen Chow, Leo Lai Chan.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Yiu SKF, Chow CFY, Tsang SHT, Zhang X, Chung JTH, Sin SYT, Chow WK, Chan LL (2022) New record of the Japanese Seahorse Hippocampus mohnikei Bleeker, 1853 (Syngnathiformes: Syngnathidae) in Hong Kong waters. Check List 18(3): 455-461. https://doi.org/10.15560/18.3.455
Open Access
Abstract

A new record of Hippocampus mohnikei Bleeker, 1853 was confirmed in Hong Kong through morphological and molecular identification. It is highly possible that there is an established population of H. mohnikei in Hong Kong due to continuous sightings by citizen scientists in the past nine years. The record is significant from a biogeographical perspective as it connects the distributions of known populations in northern China and Japan to those spanning Thailand to India. This further affirms the status of Hong Kong as a hotspot for seahorse biodiversity and conservation in China.

Keywords
Distribution expansion, South China Sea, species distribution; subtropical region