Harpodon nehereu $ 3 a Non luminous Fish 
Yata Haneda 1 
The genus Harpodon of the fish family 
Synodontidae is found in the seas of India, 
Burma, Malaya, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Thai- 
land, Indo -China, and China. It has been re- 
corded from Zanzibar and East Africa; a 
single species has been recorded from Japan. 
Four species appear to be known: Harpo- 
don nehereus, H, squamosus , H. macro chir, 
and H. mortenseni 
The first, H. nehereus (Ham. Buck), is 
the commonest and occurs in varying abun- 
dance in shallow coastal waters and estuaries, 
mostly in India, Burma, Malaya, Java, Su- 
matra, and Borneo. When salted and dried 
it forms the well-known product known as 
Bombay duck, or bummaloe, which serves as 
a condiment with curries. In Malaya, Java, 
and Sumatra it is generally known either 
alive or dead as ikan lumi or luli or aruan 
tassik, although occasionally it may have 
other names in scattered localities. As far as 
is known, H. nehereus is the only species 
found in Malaya ( Gunther, 1864; Fowler, 
1938). 
The first scientific reference to the fish 
known as "Bombay Duck” is found in Hamil- 
ton’s book on Gangetic fishes ( Hamilton- 
Buchanan, 1822). The species was discov- 
ered by him in the mouths of the Ganges, and 
was doubtfully referred to the genus Osmerus . 
However, in 1825 Lesueur proposed the 
genus Harpodon for Hamilton’s species of 
Osmerus. The synonyms of H. nehereus are 
numerous. It was first known as Osmerus ? 
nehereus (Hamilton, 1822) then later as 
Salmo (Harpodon) microps (Lesueur, 1825), 
Saurus Ophiodon (Cuvier et Valenciennes, 
1 Tokyo Jikeikai Medical College. Manuscript 
received January 28, 1949. 
1849), Saurus nehereus (Cantor, 1850), and 
finally as Harpodon nehereus. 
The second species, H. squamosus, was 
taken in deep water in the Bay of Bengal, at 
depths varying from 120 to 300 fm., and was 
described by Alcock in 1891. 
The third species, H. macro chir, was named 
by Gunther (1887: 180) from a single spec- 
imen from Tokyo, Japan. Neither the depth 
nor the locality in which it was caught is 
known. 
The fourth species, H. mortenseni ( Har- 
denberg, 1933), was caught by trawl at a 
depth of 300 m. by Dr. Mortensen, after 
whom the species was named. It was taken 
in the Bali Sea. 
There seems to be no reason why H. squa- 
mosus should not be admitted to the deep-sea 
fauna on the evidence available; however, 
there is no evidence to show that either H. 
macro chir or H. nehereus is a deep-sea fish. 
Gunther (1887) says the species H. mac- 
ro chir is named from a single specimen 27 
inches long which was obtained at Tokyo, 
Japan, although at what depth it was taken 
is not known, "but it is evident from its or- 
ganization that it should be referred to the 
deep sea fauna.” 
Boulenger (1904) states that Harpodon 
nehereus is adapted to a bathybial existence, 
and at the same time comments on its lumi- 
nosity, although stating that it is not known 
to inhabit deep water and is not confined to 
the sea but is abundant in estuaries. He 
points out further that H. squamosus lives in 
depths from 120 to 300 fm. but says nothing 
about its luminosity. Since so many state- 
ments have appeared in ichthyological publi- 
cations concerning its luminosity, I decided 
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