Epinephelus tankahkeei, a new species of grouper (Teleostei, Perciformes, Epinephelidae) from the South China Sea.

Haohao Wu,Hungdu Lin,Shaoxiong Ding,Wei Tang,Meng Qu

doi:10.3897/zookeys.933.46406

Haohao Wu, Hungdu Lin + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.933.46406

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Journal: ZooKeys	Publication Date: May 18, 2020
Citations: 4	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Xiamen University, National Tainan Institute of Nursing

Abstract

A new species of grouper, Epinephelus tankahkeeisp. nov. is described from the South China Sea based on examination of morphological and molecular characteristics. This new species has been treated as, and is similar to, its congener E. chlorostigma. Epinephelus tankahkeeisp. nov. can be distinguished from E. chlorostigma by the following combination of characters: a convex anal fin; closer dark spots on the body; a lack of dark spots on the abdomen, cheek, and pectoral fin; the absence of a clear posterior white margin on the caudal fin. Molecular analyses of the mitochondrial COI sequence variation, genetic distances, and a phylogeny, all highly support E. tankahkeeisp. nov. as a distinct species. A key to E. tankahkeeisp. nov. and its most closely related species is provided.

Highlights

The interspecific mean distances indicated that E. tankahkeei differs from E. chlorostigma by 0.0621, from E. polylepis by 0.0771, from E. gabriellae by 0.1263, from E. miliaris by 0.0904, from E. geoffroyi by 0.1219, and from E. areolatus by 0.0855 (Table 3)
Since the early 1990s, new species have been successively distinguished from E. chlorostigma and described
Epinephelus geoffroyi is local to the Red Sea and has more gill rakers (25–29 vs. 23–26) (Randall et al 2013)

Summary

Introduction

The groupers are an assemblage of reef fishes in the perciform family Epinephelidae (Smith and Craig 2007; Craig et al 2011; Zhuang et al 2013), comprising more than. The genus Epinephelus Bloch, 1793 (type species: Epinephelus marginalis Bloch, 1793 = Epinephelus fasciatus) is the most biologically diverse of all grouper genera (Heemstra and Randall 1993) and contains more than 90 valid species (Frable et al 2018). These species are characterized by an elongate, robust (subcylindrical), oblong or deep and compressed body; a dorsal fin usually with XI spines (X spines in some species) and 12 to 19 rays; and an anal fin with III distinct spines and 7 to 10 (very rarely 7 or 10) rays. A key to E. tankahkeei sp. nov. and its most closely related species is provided

Materials and methods

Discussion