Leptaulopus damasi ( Tanaka, 1915 )

Gomon, Martin F., Struthers, Carl D. & Stewart, Andrew L., 2013, A New Genus and Two New Species of the Family Aulopidae (Aulopiformes), Commonly Referred to as Aulopus, Flagfins, Sergeant Bakers or Threadsails, in Australasian Waters, Species Diversity 18, pp. 141-161 : 155-157

Leptaulopus damasi ( Tanaka, 1915)

[Japanese name: Esodamashi] ( Figs 1 , 2B , 5A, B , 6 ; Tables 2, 4)

Aulopus damasi Tanaka, 1915: 340 , pl. 92, fig. 295, Tokyo market, “off Izu, Sagami Sea, Japan ”; Yamakawa in Masuda et al. 1984: 60; Yamakawa in Okamura and Kitajima 1984: 161, 342; Yu 1988: 25; Nakabo 1993: 300; Okamura and Amaoka 1997: 109; Nakabo in Nakabo 2000: 349; Paxton in Randall and Lim 2000: 591; Shinohara et al. 2001: 299; Nakabo in Nakabo 2002: 349; Shinohara et al. 2005: 407; Senou et al. 2006: 415; Yamada et al. 2007: 244; Prokofiev 2008: 134; Matsunuma et al. 2008: 71; Hata et al. 2012: 9; Nakabo and Kai in Nakabo 2013: 421.

Hime damasi: Masuda et al. 1975: 175 , pl. 20-B; Parin and Kotlyar 1989: 407; Thompson 1998: 50; Hoese, Bray and Gates in Hoese et al. 2006: 464.

Neotype. NSMT-P 115220 (formerly KAUM –I. 55574) Kagoshima Prefecture, off Kusagaki Islands , 31°11.00′N, 129°29.28′E, 202 m, line fishing, collected by Toru Miyashita, 18 July 2013.

Other material examined. 19 specimens, 145–311 mm SL. JAPAN: BSKU 22427, 199 mm SL, off Kochi, Kaikomaru, bottom trawl, 13 July 1971; BSKU 050964 , 148 mm SL, Okinawa Prefecture, Nago fish market, bottom trawl around Tonaki-jima Island (west of Okinawa-jima Island ), collected by I . Ohta, 13 November 2012; BSKU 050965 , 168 mm SL, same data as BSKU 050964; BSKU 050966 , 146 mm SL, same data as BSKU 050964; BSKU 050967 , 156 mm SL, same data as BSKU 050964; BSKU 050968 , 162 mm SL, same data as BSKU 050964; BSKU 106639, 213 mm SL, Kochi Prefecture, Kochi City, Mimase fish market, bottom trawl by Kosei-mau , collected by K . Hirota, 15 March 2012; KAUM –I . 43848, 311 mm SL, Kagoshima Prefecture, off Bonotsu, Minami-satsuma , 31°11.25′N, 130°06.86′E, 250 m, line fishing, collected by Toru Miyashita, 20 November 2011 . TAIWAN: ASIZ 63217, 231 mm SL, northeastern Taiwan, Yilang, Da-Shi fishing port, 24.94°N, 121.9°E, bottom trawl, collected by H .-C . Ho, 7 May 2004; ASIZ 65839, 258 mm SL, northeastern Taiwan, Da-Shi fishing port, Yilang , 24.94°N, 121.9°E, bottom trawl, collected by P .-F . Lee, 24 April 2005 (X-ray at http://fishdb.sinica. edu.tw/chi/specimendetail.php?id= ASIZP0065839 ); ASIZ 65841, 263 mm SL, same data as ASIZ 65839; ASIZ 65842, 228 mm SL, same data as ASIZ 65839; ASIZ 65861, 250 mm SL, same data as ASIZ 65839; BSKU 050404 , 198 mm SL, northeastern Taiwan, Da-Shi fishing port, Yilang , 24.94°N, 121.9°E, bottom trawl, collected by R . Asaoka, 4 April 2012; NMMB P11215, 2 , 249– 275 mm SL, northeastern Taiwan, Da-Shi fishing port, Yilang , 24.94°N, 121.9°E, bottom trawl, collected by H .-C . Ho, 5 September 2009; NMMB P 11217, 145 mm SL, northeastern Taiwan, Yilang, Nanfang’ao fishing port, 24.94°N, 121.9°E, bottom trawl, collected by H .-C . Ho, 5 July 2010; NMMB P 18071, 263 mm SL, northeastern Taiwan, Yilang , Nan-fang’ao fishing port, 24.94°N, 121.9°E, bottom trawl, collected by H .-C . Ho, 12 November 2012. AUSTRALIA: CSIRO H 651-10, 170 mm SL, Queensland, Marion Reef, Marian Plateau , 19°43.7′S, 152°06.4′E – 19°46.3′S, 152°04.5′E, 370– 368 m, FRV Soela, 23 November 1985 .

Diagnosis. Dorsal fin rays 14 (rarely 13); anal fin rays 9 (rarely 8); vertebrae 20 or 21+15 or 16=36 (usually 21+ 15=36); lateral line scales 33–37+1 (usually 35+1); scales below lateral line 3.5; predorsal scales 13–17; gill rakers 2 or 3+9–12=11–15. Snout moderately elongate, length 10.6– 12.6% SL, 30.3–34.3% HL, longer than eye diameter, slightly dorsoventrally flattened, narrowly rounded from above; bony interorbital narrow, width 2.4–4.0% SL and 7.0–11.1% HL; distance from snout tip to dorsal fin origin 40.3–46.7% SL and 115–130% HL; anal fin base 8.2–10.2% SL and 22.6–29.0% HL (see Tables 2 and 4 for additional meristic and morphometric values). Expanded posterior end of maxilla and posterior and ventral margins of preopercle dusky to dark brown. Dorsal fin translucent with about three narrow submarginal stripes paralleling outer edge of fin, obscure basally, intervening spaces on fin rays white. Caudal fin white with two to four broad red bands crossing each lobe, proximal band continuous across fin in some. Reaches a moderately large size, largest specimen known 311 mm SL.

Distribution. A western Pacific species reported in Japan from the original type locality in Sagami Bay south to Kochi, Kagoshima ( Hata et al. 2012: 9), Okinawa and the East China Sea ( Yamada et al. 2007: 244), northern Taiwan and the Marion Plateau off Queensland, Australian ( Hoese et al. 2006: 464; Fig. 6 ). It appears to be confined to the upper continental slope at depths of about 250– 508 m. Like other members of the family it is likely to inhabit hard bottom environments where trawling is rarely undertaken, which would explain its paucity in collections.

Remarks. Eschmeyer (2012) reported that the sole type specimen of A. damasi (ZUMT 3771) is lost. Kazuo Sakamoto, the current curator of Tanaka’s collection, confirmed that Yoshiaki Tominaga and his co-workers had checked Tanaka’s type specimens and concluded it had been mislaid or lost. As the type specimen of A. damasi is no longer extant the erection of a neotype for A. damasi is considered necessary to affix the name and to distinguish it from the very similar Leptaulopus erythrozonatus sp. nov. A specimen (NSMT-P. 115220, 297 mm SL; Fig. 5A ) collected off Kagoshima, Japan is proposed as the neotype for the species. Accordingly, Kagoshima becomes the type locality of A. damasi under Article 76.3 of The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature ( International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 1999).

As indicated by the brief summary of citations above, this species has not been treated often in the literature and most references to it have been as single entry listings in faunal lists. The first report of L. damasi (as Hime damasi ; Hoese Bray and Gates in Hoese et al. 2006: 464) in the Southern Hemisphere was based on a single specimen (CSIRO H 651- 10, 170 mm SL, Fig. 5B ), the morphology of which ( Tables 2, 4) mostly agrees with Japanese specimens examined. Although the vertebral numbers for Japanese specimens have not appeared in published accounts, the Australian specimen of this species appears to have the same number of vertebral elements as material examined from Taiwan and Japan.

Figures

Fig. 1. TN93 neighbour-joining tree of 59 COI sequences from 4 purported genera and 11 purported species of Aulopidae, as well as sequences for an outgroup species, Paraulopus nigripinnis. Percent bootstrap values are given for all well supported nodes (>70%), followed by bootstrap values for these nodes in a TN93 maximum likelihood and a p-distance neighbour joining tree. See text. Specimen numbers are registration numbers of vouchers or those of the Barcode of Life Database (BOLD, www.barcodinglife.org) or GenBank (www.ncbi.nlm.nih. gov).

Fig. 2. Nasal flap: A) Hime pyrhistion sp. nov. NMNZ P.054047, holotype; B) Leptaulopus damasi NSMT-P. 115220, neotype; and, C) Leptaulopus erythrozonatus sp. nov. NMNZ P.042518, holotype.

Fig. 5. Species of Leptaulopus gen. nov.: A) L. damasi, NSMT-P115220, neotype, 297mm SL, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan (photo by H. Motomura); B) L. damasi, CSIRO H 651–10, 170mm SL, Marion Reef, Queensland, Australia (photo courtesy of CSIRO); C) L. erythrozonatus sp. nov., NMNZ P.042518, holotype, 271mm SL, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand; and, D) new genus and species (after Shimizu and Yamakawa 1989), Norfolk Ridge, New Zealand.

Fig. 6. Collection localities for specimens examined of Letaulopus spp. Leptaulopus damasi (triangles): neotype black with blue centre and other material blue. Lepaulopus erythrozonatus sp. nov (squares): holotype black with red centre and paratype red.