On the type species of Trichopodus ( Teleostei : Perciformes : Osphronemidae )

The genus Trichopodus is one of the oldest genusgroup names within the South-east Asian fi sh family Osphronemidae. When the taxon was established in the early 19th century it was not usual to designate a type species for a new genus, because this concept became established later on. This is why many of the old genera had no type species until later authors designated one. However, sometimes there are discussions about the question which is the fi rst designation. In such cases, with all the numerous old literature at hand, it is often a challenge to fi nd out which species is the type species for a genus-group name. There are also disagreements (e. g., MYERS, 1923; DERIJST, 1997) and discussions (e.g., BRITZ, 2004; SCHÄFER, 2003; SCHINDLER, 2009; TÖPFER, 2008) about which speciesgroup taxon has to be treated as the type species of Trichopodus. This is the reason of our analyses of the available taxonomic papers concerning Trichopodus. We review the sources under the rules of the current version of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN, 4th edition 1999) to clarify the type fi xation of this genus-group name.


Introduction
The genus Trichopodus is one of the oldest genusgroup names within the South-east Asian fi sh family Osphronemidae.When the taxon was established in the early 19 th century it was not usual to designate a type species for a new genus, because this concept became established later on.This is why many of the old genera had no type species until later authors designated one.However, sometimes there are discussions about the question which is the fi rst designation.In such cases, with all the numerous old literature at hand, it is often a challenge to fi nd out which species is the type species for a genus-group name.There are also disagreements (e. g., MYERS, 1923;DERIJST, 1997) and discussions (e.g., BRITZ, 2004;SCHÄFER, 2003;SCHINDLER, 2009;TÖPFER, 2008) about which speciesgroup taxon has to be treated as the type species of Trichopodus.This is the reason of our analyses of the available taxonomic papers concerning Trichopodus.
We review the sources under the rules of the current version of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN, 4 th edition 1999) to clarify the type fi xation of this genus-group name.

Type species of Trichopodus LACEPÈDE, 1801
The genus Trichopodus was created by LACEPÈDE (1801) JORDAN, 1917: 58).In 1923 MYERS challenged the designation by JORDAN and interpreted CUVIER's restriction of Trichopodus (thus also for Trichogaster) to a single species as an implication for a type designation.However, the "Elimination of all but one of the originally included nominal species from a nominal genus or subgenus does not in itself constitute type fi xation" (ICZN Art.69.4.).DERIJST (1997) argued that CUVIER's statement "Le véritable trichopode" for Trichopodus trichopterus might be treated as a fi xation of a type species.However, the simple emphasizing of a particular species is not suffi cient to establish a type selection by itself (ICZN Art.67.5.: "The term 'designation' in relation to fi xation of a type species ... must be rigidly construed").This is why -in our point of view -CU-VIER (in CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, 1831) did not fulfi l the requirements for a valid type species fi xation.JORDAN (1917) as well as MYERS (1923) did not mention the paper by BLEEKER (1879).BLEEKER (1879: 21) wrote under the genus Trichopodus: "J'y rapporte outre l'espèce type, les Osphromenus siamensis et microlepis GÜNTH.".The only other species BLEEKER (1879) dealt with in Trichopodus, besides the two mentioned before, was T. trichopterus.Hence, Labrus trichopterus PALLAS became unquestionably the type species of Trichopodus LACEPÈDE, 1801.Thus, the earliest valid designation of a type species for Trichopodus is by BLEEKER (1879) and the later type species fi xation by JORDAN (1917) is not valid (ICZN 69.1.).

Discussion
With the clarifi cation of the type species of the genus Trichopodus the generic assignment of the species currently recognized as Trichogaster (e.g., SMITH, 1945;ROBERTS, 1989) must be changed (see Table 1).According to Article 70.2. of the ICZN ("If it is found that an earlier type species fi xation has been overlooked, the overlooked fi xation is to be accepted and any later fi xations are invalid.If this is considered to cause instability or confusion the case is to be referred to the Commission for a ruling") every case has to be send to the Commission if the stability of nomenclature is threatened.However, in this case no type fi xation was "overlooked", but it was misinterpreted by MYERS (1923).Since MYERS (1923) GÜNTHER, 1861;DAY, 1877;REGAN, 1910).This is why we refrain from sending an application to the Commission (cf.BRITZ, 2004;TÖPFER, 2008).
If the type species designation by JORDAN (1917) for Trichogaster is the valid one (see above) the species currently assigned to Colisa (see e.g., JAYARAM 1981, Schaefer 2003) have to be called Trichogaster (cf.DERIJST, 1997;BRITZ, 2004;TÖPFER, 2008).This would be in the sense of the publications of GÜNTHER (1861), DAY (1877), BLEEKER (1879) and REGAN (1910), which all treated Trichogaster as the valid genus-group name for the Indian dwarf gouramies.However, a comprehensive discussion about the possible type species of Trichogaster is not within the scope of this contribution.
In the case of Trichopodus it does not matter if CUVIER (in CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, 1831) or BLEEKER (1879) did the fi rst and thus valid fi xation of type species, because both used the very same species-group taxon viz.Labrus trichopterus.Therefore, the type species of Trichopodus is undoubtedly Labrus trichopterus PALLAS, 1770.According to this result (see also DERIJST, 1997;BRITZ, 2004;TÖPFER, 2008) for the two species-group taxa T. mentum (named by LACEPÈDE in the same chapter) and Labrus trichopterus PALLAS, 1770.No type species was selected.CUVIER (in CUVIER & VALENCIENNES 1831: 388) included Labrus trichopterus PALLAS, 1770 as the single species for Trichopodus LACEPÈDE.He treated the genus Trichogaster BLOCH & SCHNEIDER as a synonym of Trichopodus.JORDAN (1917) designated TÖPFER & SCHINDLER: Type species of Trichopodus 50 Trichopodus mentum LACEPÈDE (a synonym of Osphronemus goramy; see ROBERTS, 1992) as the type species for Trichopodus LACEPÈDE (see JORDAN, 1917: 61) and Trichogaster fasciatus BLOCH & SCHNEIDER (correctly T. fasciata; see appendix) as the type species for Trichogaster BLOCH & SCHNEIDER (see assumed that Trichogaster BLOCH & SCHNEIDER is the senior synonym of Trichopodus LACEPÈDE (actually Trichogaster BLOCH & SCHNEIDER, 1801 would be the junior synonym of Trichopodus LACEPÉDE, 1801; see DERIJST, 1997) he synonymised both under the name Trichogaster with the type species Labrus trichopterus PAL-LAS.Before this taxonomic misinterpretation and raise of confusion (based on MYERS, 1923) the South-east Asian gouramies were included in the genus-group name Trichopodus and the Indian dwarf gouramies were assigned to Trichogaster (see e.g., we have summarized the conclusion in Table 1 (for the discussion of the validity of Trichopodus cantoris see PAEPKE, 2009).Type species and valid species-group taxa of the genus Trichopodus.