A new species of deep-sea grunt, Rhonciscus pauco (Lutjaniformes: Haemulidae), from Puerto Rico

PeerJ

article

Jose Tavera¹  Michelle T. Schärer-Umpierre²  Arturo Acero P.³ 

[1] Departamento de Biología, Universidad del Valle;HJR Reefscaping;Instituto para el Estudio de las Ciencias del Mar, CECIMAR, Universidad Nacional de Colombia sede Caribe

关键词: Biodiversity;    Inner slope;    Ichthyology;    West indies;    Greater Antilles;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.13502

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

A fourth species of the genus Rhonciscus (Lutjaniformes: Haemulidae) is described from various specimens collected by small-scale fishers from the insular upper slope of western Puerto Rico. The new species was molecularly recovered as sister to the Eastern Pacific R. branickii, to which it bears many morphological similarities. It is distinguished from other Rhonciscus species by the number of scale rows between the dorsal fin and the lateral line (7), larger and thus fewer scales along the lateral line (48–50), large eyes (9.4–10.4 times in SL), longer caudal peduncle (15.2–20% of SL), larger sized penultimate (14.7–19.1% in SL) and last (7.4–9.5% in SL) dorsal fin spines which translates to a less deeply notched dorsal fin, and its opalescent silver with golden specks live coloration. This grunt, only now recognized by ichthyologists, but well known by local fishers that target snappers and groupers between 200 and 500 m in depth, occurs in far deeper waters than any western Atlantic grunt.

【 授权许可】

CC BY