Aulopareia unicolor (Valenciennes 1837)

Chinese common name: 单色颊沟虾虎鱼

Distribution in China: Fujian; Taiwan; Guangdong; Guangxi; Hainan.

国内分布：福建省，台湾省，广东省，广西壮族自治区，海南省。

Distribution abroad: Indo-West Pacific: Iran east to Indonesia.

Live specimen collected in Beihai, Guangxi, China. SL: 60 mm.

采集于北海。SL: 60 mm.

This species was long considered a member of the genus Acentrogobius, known as Acentrogobius chlorostigmatoides (Green-spotted goby). Kottelat and others first noted the similarity between the two in 1993 and synonymized them in works such as Freshwater Fishes of Western Indonesia and Sulawesi. Over the following 20 years, more ichthyologists noticed the similarities and adopted Kottelat's view.

It is worth mentioning that in Fauna Sinica, another species known as Acentrogobius microps (Small-eyed goby) was collected from Kanmen, Yuhuan, Zhejiang, and was noted to resemble A. chlorostigmatoides. However, the book highlighted distribution differences, with A. chlorostigmatoides found in the South China Sea and A. microps in the East China Sea, as well as differences in the second dorsal fin rays. Although Acentrogobius microps is listed as a valid name as Aulopareia microps in Eschmeyer's Catalog, it is prefaced with a noteworthy "possibly." Meanwhile, specimens of Aulopareia collected by the website maintainers and colleagues in Zhejiang (Yuhuan, Wenling, and Zhoushan) all showed second dorsal fin rays consistent with A. chlorostigmatoides, now Aulopareia unicolor.

Given the scarcity of reliable records of Acentrogobius microps since its description, we have chosen to follow the views of Eschmeyer's Catalog and Larson (2022), and temporarily set aside the treatment of A. microps as a separate species from Aulopareia unicolor.

本种曾长期被认为是细棘虾虎鱼属Acentrogobius的成员，称为绿斑细棘虾虎鱼Acentrogobius chlorostigmatoides。Kottelat等人最早在1993年发现两者的相似之处，并在其Freshwater fishes of Western Indonesia and Sulawesi等著作中予以归并。在之后20年里，越来越多的鱼类学家注意到两者之间的相似之处，采纳了Kottelat等的意见。

值得一提的是，在《中国动物志》中，还有一种采自浙江玉环坎门的小眼细棘虾虎鱼Acentrogobius microps，与绿斑颇相似。不过书中指出了两者分布上的不同：绿斑在南海，小眼在东海。同时指出了其第二背鳍鳍条的差异。在Eschmeyer's Catalog中，虽有小眼细棘虾虎鱼Acentrogobius microps的有效名为Aulopareia microps的观点，但其前面有个十分耐人寻味的"possibly"字样。同时，网站维护者及同事在浙江（玉环坎门、温岭箬横、舟山）采集到的颊沟虾虎鱼第二背鳍鳍条均符合绿斑，即单色颊沟虾虎鱼的特征。鉴于自发表以来罕有可靠的“小眼细棘虾虎鱼”的捕获记录，我们暂时选择沿用Eschmeyer's Catalog和Larson(2022)的观点，暂时搁置将小眼作为不同于绿斑，即单色颊沟虾虎鱼的独立种处理的观点。

Live specimen collected in Zhoushan Archipelago, China. SL: 60 mm. Photo by XL GUO

采集于舟山的“单色颊沟虾虎鱼”。SL: 60 mm. 图/郭星乐

Reference: Larson, Helen & Jaafar, Zeehan. (2022). A review of the gobiid fish genus Aulopareia (Gobiidae: Gobiinae) with description of a new species from Kuwait and discussion of the status of Gobius cyanomos Bleeker. Zootaxa. 5155. 493-516. 10.11646/zootaxa.5155.4.2.