A new species of Priolepis (Teleostei; Gobiidae) from the Kermadec Islands, southwest Pacific Ocean, with comments on relationships

Abstract

Priolepis psygmophilia is described from four specimens from the Kermadec Islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The new species lacks scales in the predorsal midline and has a very faintly developed pattern of bars on the head and a reduced transverse pattern of cheek papillae, and thus apparently falls into the P. semidoliatus clade. However, the strongly outlined scale pockets indicate that it may be related to the portion of the P. cintus grade that shares this characteristic. If so, its relationships seem to lie with P. limbatosquamis (Hawaii) and an undescribed species (P. DFH sp. 3) from Lord Howe Island and eastern Australia, and another (P. RW sp. 20) from Lord Howe, Easter, and Austral islands, in which the predorsal midline scalation is reduced or absent. Thus, scales in the predorsal midline appear to have been lost independently in the P. cinctus grade and P. semidoliatus clade. There are now 29 Indo-Pacific species of Priolepis (of which 3 remain to be described by other workers), and 4 Atlantic species.