Neoniphon pencei, a new species of holocentrid (Teleostei: Beryciformes) from Rarotonga, Cook Islands

Joshua Copus,Richard Pyle,John Earle

doi:10.3897/bdj.3.e4180

Abstract

Neoniphon pencei, n. sp., is described from thirteen specimens, 132-197 mm standard length (SL) collected from mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs) at Rarotonga, Cook Islands by divers using mixed-gas closed-circuit rebreathers. It differs from all other species of the genus in number of lateral line scales, scales above and below lateral line, elements of life color, and in COI and cytochrome b DNA sequences. Of the five other known species of Neoniphon, it is most similar to the Indo-Pacific N. aurolineatus and the western Atlantic N. marianus both morphologically and genetically.

Highlights

Collections of shore fishes at mesophotic depths (~30-200 m) across the Indo-Pacific are yielding a surprising number of undescribed species (Pyle 2000)
We describe a new species of the genus Neoniphon from depths of 90-115 m at Rarotonga, Cook Islands, raising to six the number of species within this genus
Most recent authors who have reported on Neoniphon (e.g., Randall and Heemstra 1985, Randall and Heemstra 1986, Kotlyar 1996, Kotlyar 1998, Randall and Greenfield 1999, Greenfield 2003, Satapoomin 2009) consider it to be a valid genus, distinct from other genera in the subfamily Holocentrinae ( Sargocentron; Fowler 1904), primarily on the basis of the position of the last dorsal-fin spine, and the protruding lower jaw in species of Neoniphon (Randall and Heemstra 1985)

Summary

Introduction

Collections of shore fishes at mesophotic depths (~30-200 m) across the Indo-Pacific are yielding a surprising number of undescribed species (Pyle 2000). The genus Neoniphon Castelnau 1875 includes five currently recognized species: N. argenteus (Valenciennes in Cuvier and Valenciennes 1831), N. aurolineatus (Liénard 1839), N. opercularis (Valenciennes in Cuvier and Valenciennes 1831) and N. sammara (Forsskål 1775) from the tropical Indo-Pacific, and N. marianus (Cuvier in Cuvier and Valenciennes 1829) from the tropical western Atlantic. Randall and Heemstra (1985) treated the four IndoPacific species of the genus, and confidently asserted that the original description of N. armatus Castelnau 1875 (the type species ofNeoniphon) is conspecific with N. sammara, and considered Neoniphon as a valid genus with higher nomenclatural priority, to apply to the the four Indo-Pacific species as well as N. marianus from the tropical Atlantic. The lead author is working on a larger phylogeographic study involving this genus, which will be published at a later time

Materials and methods

Findings

Discussion