Two new species of the waspfish genus Ablabys (Scorpaeniformes: Tetrarogidae) from the western Pacific Ocean

Abstract

Two new waspfish (Tetrarogidae) species, Ablabys pauciporus sp. nov. and A. gymnothorax sp. nov., are described on the basis of three specimens from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia and four specimens from Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam, respectively. Although A. pauciporus and Ablabys taenianotus (Cuvier 1829) both share counts of 4 or 5 anal-fin soft rays with a short fin base and 11 or 12 pectoral-fin rays, the former has distinctly lower counts of body scales, including number of lateral-line pores (12 or 13 vs. 20–25 in the latter), strongly notched interspinous dorsal-fin membranes (vs. weakly notched or unnotched), and some differing morphometrics (including head depth, orbit diameter and pelvic-fin length) and coloration. Ablabys gymnothorax is most similar to Ablabys macracanthus (Bleeker 1852) in having more than 7 anal-fin soft rays with a long fin base, but differs from the latter in having a naked thorax (vs. scaled), the last dorsal-fin soft ray with a continuous basal membrane to the dorsal edge of the caudal peduncle and the basal upper margin of the caudal fin (vs. not continuous with caudal fin), higher counts of dorsal- and anal-fin rays, body scales and gill rakers, and in some morphometrics. Tetraroge vestitus De Vis 1884, previously considered as a junior synonym of A. taenianotus, is regarded here as a junior synonym of Centropogon marmoratus Gunther 1862.