Hippocampus haema Han, Kim, Kai & Senou, 2017
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
Hippocampus haema, the Korean seahorse, is a seahorse of the family Syngnathidae native to the northern Pacific Ocean (Korea Strait, Sea of Japan, northeastern coast of Honshu), and it usually lives in Sargassum and weeds on shallow soft bottom habitats from 0 to 18 m depth. The Korean seahorse is the most common seahorse in Korean waters so that the scientific name 'haema' is named from 'seahorse' in Korean. The Japanese name 'Himetatsu' is derived from its smaller shape such as body and coronet rather than the shape of a sister species, crowned seahorse (Hippocampus coronatus). This species had been repeatedly misidentified as crowned seahorse and Shiho's seahorse before a taxonomic review. However, the two genuine species do not live in Korean waters, therefore this species was handled by naming a new scientific name, Hippocampus haema. It can grow to lengths of 11 centimeters, but more commonly 6 to 8 centimeters as adult. Namely, the length of juvenile is 1 to 5 centimeters, whereas and the lengths of males and females reaching sexual maturity are considered as ca.
Wikipedia contributors, Hippocampus haema; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T22:48:34.184207+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Hippocampus haema Han, Kim, Kai & Senou, 2017
- Name authority
- Han, Kim, Kai & Senou, 2017
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Syngnathiformes
- Family
- Syngnathidae
- Genus
- Hippocampus
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: no · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- gigaclassActinopterygii
- superclassActinopteri
- classTeleostei
- orderSyngnathiformes
- familySyngnathidae Bonaparte, 1831
- subfamilySyngnathinae Bonaparte, 1831
- genusHippocampus Rafinesque, 1810
- speciesHippocampus haema Han, Kim, Kai & Senou, 2017
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Hippocampus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Hippocampus algiricus Kaup, 1856 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hippocampus angustus Günther, 1870 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hippocampus barbouri Jordan & Richardson, 1908 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hippocampus bargibanti Whitley, 1970 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| giraffe seahorseHippocampus camelopardalis Bianconi, 1854 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hippocampus capensis Boulenger, 1900 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hippocampus casscsio Zhang, Qin, Wang & Lin, 2016 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hippocampus debelius Gomon & Kuiter, 2009 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| lined seahorseHippocampus erectus Perry, 1810 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hippocampus fisheri Jordan & Evermann, 1903 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| seahorseHippocampus hippocampus (Linnaeus, 1758) | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Pacific seahorseHippocampus ingens Girard, 1858 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- Han, S. Y., Kim, J. K., Kai, Y., & Senou, H. (2017). Seahorses of the Hippocampus coronatus complex: taxonomic revision, and description of Hippocampus haema, a new species from Korea and Japan (Teleostei, Syngnathidae). ZooKeys, 712, 113. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.712.14955 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:D55WZ. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.