A REVIEW OF SPECIES OF THE ANTHIINE FISH GENUSPLECTRAHTHIAS(PERCIFORMES: SERRANIDAE) FROM MAURITIUS

Abstract

SUMMARY Three species of the serranid genus Plectranthias occur at Mauritius: Plectranthias winniensis (Tyler, 1966). P. inermis Randall, 1980 and P. pelicieri Randall and Shimizu, 1994. A recently collected specimen of P. inermis provided new data on intraspecific variation of what were previously supposed to be diagnostic characters for this species. Although this new specimen has a complete lateral line and 20 dorsal-fin rays, compared with an incomplete lateral line and 16–18 rays previously reported for P. inermis, all of the other diagnostic features (preopercle, interopercle and subopercle smooth; dorsal fin divided almost to the base between spinous and soft-rayed parts; pectoral-fin rays 13. all unbranched; one row of scales between lateral line and base of middle dorsal fin spines and one row of scales between dorsal-fin origin and lateral line; snout, preorbital, maxilla, lower jaw and interorbital area naked, cheek with 5 oblique rows of scales) agree with P. inermis. New data for all three sp...