The first record of the pharaoh cardinal fish, Apogonichthyoides pharaonis (Actinopterygii: Perciformes: Apogonidae), from Libyan waters

Bruno Zava,Sara A. A. Al Mabruk,Abdulghani Abdulghani,Alan Deidun,Maria Corsini-Foka

doi:10.3897/aiep.51.63504

Abstract

The occurrence of the pharaoh cardinalfish, Apogonichthyoides pharaonis (Bellotti, 1874), is documented for the first time from the Libyan waters, after two subsequent findings reported in September and November 2020 in the far eastern region of the country. The location of these findings represents the westernmost area of distribution in the southern Mediterranean for this species, which has the western Indian Ocean and Red Sea origin and which entered into the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal.

Highlights

There is only one member of the cardinal fish family (Apogonidae) native to the Mediterranean, the Mediterranean cardinal fish, Apogon imberbis (Linnaeus, 1758), while at least five non-indigenous members of the same family have been recorded to date from the basin
Apogonichthyoides pseudotaeniatus differs in lacking a bar on the caudal peduncle
A. taeniatus has a caudal spot, but no bar on the caudal-fin base and 5–6 narrow dusky stripes along the body, which are never present in A. pharaonis, and usually 3 median predorsal scales

Summary

Introduction

There is only one member of the cardinal fish family (Apogonidae) native to the Mediterranean, the Mediterranean cardinal fish, Apogon imberbis (Linnaeus, 1758), while at least five non-indigenous members of the same family have been recorded to date from the basin. The record of A. pharaonis is documented for the first time in the Libyan waters, being the species not yet reported in recent literature on marine non-indigenous species of the country (Shakman et al 2019 and references therein; Abdelghani et al 2020; Bariche et al 2020; Osca et al 2020).

Results

Conclusion