The deep sea fish sollections of Haberer & Doflein

Section Ichthyology

The HABERER & DOFLEIN Collection contained more than 6500 marine fishes (481 species out of 319 genera in 130 families) (Anonymus, no date). Both collections originate from the Sagami Bay off Yokohama and Aburatsubo, including many deap sea fishes but also large specimens like an Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola) and a Goblin Shark that was described by Engelhardt as Scapanorhynchus dofleini. Later specimens were purchased by DOFLEIN from the natural history dealer Alan Owston in Yokohama.

The collectio of K. A. Haberer

The HABERER collection was mainly based on material from his second journey to China and Japan from 1898 – 1901. Due to the Boxer Rebellion HABERER was forced to leave China immediately; however he managed to save his vertebrate fossils from the Yangtze-Kiang River. Before he left for Japan, he complied a comprehensive marine collection from the Chinese Sea off Shanhai. However, major parts of his collection, more than 5000 specimens, originate from the Sagami Bay off Yokohama, among them 3000 fishes. HABERER donated his large collection of zoological objects to the ZSM (Doflein, 1905). DOFLEIN revised parts of the HABERER Collection, and worked scientifically on the crustaceans.

The collection of F. Doflein

In 1904 DOFLEIN received a grant from KING LUITPOLD VON BAYERN which allowed him the exploration of the deep sea fauna in the Sagami Bay. His Collection included also more than 3000 fishes, nearly exclusively marine material and only few specimens from brackish or freshwater habitats. A station list with detailed information on coordinates, depths and duration of single trawls was published by Doflein in 1910. Additional material originates from local fishermen, which used hooked Diabolo lines for long-line fishing in greater depths in the Aburatsubo Bay. Two of them, the Kuma and Tsuschida, assited Doflein also onboard of the steam vessel “Zuso Maru”, which Doflein hired for 18 days for his surveys in the Sagami Bay. Due to bad weather it was actually possible to trawl only on 8 days from 8-15.XI.1904.

The fishes from both collections were revised by VICTOR FRANZ, who described 22 new species from the available material. Few specimens from the HABERER & DOFLEIN Collections survived World War II because they were part of the public exhebition in the Natural Cabinet, or stored in the ZPLMU collection. Two of the originally 19 syntypes of Ditrema temmincki var. jordani Franz, 1910 were rediscovered in in a type search in 2005 (D. Neumann): ZSM 257 und ZSM 30574 (ex ZPLMU 1757).

List of stations of DOFLEIN 1904, Sagami Bay near Yokohama (Japan) (PDF, 14 KB).

Doflein, F. 1904. Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte Ostasiens. Abhandlungen der II Klasse der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Supplement Band I.

— . 1905. Die Tiefseefauna der Sagamibucht. Mitteilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft für natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens 10 (2).

— . 1906. Die Ostasienfahrt; Erlebnisse und Beobachtungen eines Naturforschers in China, Japan und Ceylon. B.G. Teubner, Leipzig & Berlin.

Franz, V. 1910. Die japanischen Knochenfische der Sammlungen Haberer und Doflein. Abhandlungen der math.-phys. Klasse der Königlich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften IV, Supplement Bd. 1.