Izak Catshark - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The Izak catshark was originally described by South African ichthyologist John Gilchrist in a 1922 fisheries survey report. He assigned the new species to the genus Scylliorhinus, and gave it the specific epithet regani in honor of fellow ichthyologist Charles Tate Regan. In 1934, Henry Weed Fowler assigned this species to his newly created Holohalaelurus, a subgenus of Halaelurus. Holohalaelurus has since been elevated to the rank of full genus. As there do not appear to be any existing type specimens referable to Gilchrist's account, in 2006 Brett Human designated a 63 cm (25 in) long male caught in Hondeklip Bay as the species neotype.

Historically, there has been much confusion in the scientific literature between H. regani, H. punctatus, and H. melanostigma, the last of which at various times had been considered a junior synonym of H. regani and was itself confounded with H. grennian. Furthermore, two forms of H. regani were once recognized: the "Cape" or "typical" form and the "Natal" or "northeastern" form. The latter "northeastern" form was described as a separate species, H. favus, in 2006.