Hime japonica ( Günther, 1877 )

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 : 145-146

Hime japonica ( Günther, 1877)

[Japanese name: Hime ] ( Fig. 1 ; Tables 2, 3)

Aulopus japonicus Günther, 1877: 444 , Yokohama market, Japan; Jordan et al. 1913: 49, fig. 27; Jordan and Thompson 1914: 212, pl. XL, fig. 1; Yamakawa in Okamura and Kitajima 1984: 159, 342; Yamakawa in Masuda et al. 1984:60; Yu 1988: 25; Paulin et al. 1989: 104; Nakabo 1993: 300; Mok 1993: 156; Lee and Chao 1994: 211; Baldwin and Johnson 1996: 358; Okamura and Amaoka 1997: 109; Paxton and Niem 1999: 1920; Nakabo in Nakabo 2000: 349; Paxton in Randall and Lim 2000: 591; Kawaguchi et al. 2001: 213; Shinohara et al. 2001: 299; Chen 2002: 86; Nakabo in Nakabo 2002: 349; Shinohara et al. 2005: 407; Senou et al. 2006: 415; Yamada et al. 2007: 245; Prokofiev 2008: 134; Matsunuma et al. 2008: 71, fig. 2; Shinohara et al. 2011: 39; Hata et al. 2012: 9; Nakabo and Kai in Nakabo 2013: 421.

Hime japonica: Starks 1924: 30 ; Mori 1952: 42 (Fusan, Korea); Masuda et al. 1975: 174, pl. 20-A; Parin and Kotlyar 1989: 407 (in part); Thompson 1998: 50; Mundy 2005: 192 (in part); Hoese, Bray and Gates, in Hoese et al. 2006: 464 (in part).

Hime japonicus: Youn 2002: 199 , 532.

Material examined. 12 specimens, 135–178 mm SL. JAPAN: NSMT-P 61775, 158 mm SL, female, Honshu, Tokyo Bay, 29 July 1984; NSMT-P 67548 , 2 , 136– 148 mm SL, males, 135 mm SL, female, East China Sea , 30°32.83′N, 127°48.41′E to 30°31.62′N, 127°47.69′E, 194–204 m, 5 November 2003; NSMT-P 73444, 149 mm SL, male, Honshu , Fukushima Prefecture, Iwaki , Onahama , 1931–1935; NSMT-P 96491, 160 mm SL, male, 143 mm SL, female, East China Sea , 26 June 1984; NSMT-P 101791 , 2 , 152– 160 mm SL, males, 3, 168– 178 mm SL, females, Suruga Bay , Honshu , Shizuoka Prefecture, Seno-umi , 50–60 m, 22 June 1981, hook and line .

Diagnosis. Dorsal fin rays 16, rarely 15; anal fin rays 10, rarely 9; pectoral fin rays 11, rarely 12; vertebrae 41–43; total gill rakers 20 or 21, rarely 19 or 22; lateral line scales 42 or 43, rarely 41; pyloric caeca 11. Dorsal fin large anteriorly in males, membranes deeply incised but none of the rays filamentous, third or fourth rays longest, reaching 25.7% SL, decreasing in length to middle of fin with posterior rays progressively longer, reaching 19.5% SL, posterior lobe reaching to or past adipose fin origin; anterior end of fin lower in females, membranes deeply incised with rays decreasing in length to middle of fin, lengths of subsequent rays subequal; posterior lobe reaching little more than half way to adipose fin. Anal fin relatively deep in males, posterior lobe approaching hypural crease in large individuals; fin smaller in females, posterior lobe reaching little more than half way to hypural crease (see Tables 2 and 3 for additional meristic and morphometric values). Males with prominent, large orange to red blotch or markings anteriorly and yellow spots posteriorly in dorsal fin, three broad bands on side with wide dark brown margins dorsally, wide yellow stripes on each lobe of caudal fin and white pelvic and anal fins, pelvics somewhat orange basally and anal with broad yellow stripe on basal half. Females with orange to red spots scattered on dorsal fin, similar but less defined pattern on side, mottled yellow to orange pattern on caudal fin, similar pelvic fin but no yellow on anal fin. Reaches a moderately small size for members of the genus, largest specimen known 196 mm SL.

Distribution. Although reported from a number of areas in the western Pacific, this species is conclusively known only from Japan, Korea and the East China Sea south to Taiwan. In Japan, it is recorded from both the Sea of Japan and western Pacific coasts south of northern Honshu ( Yamada et al. 2007: 245). It apparently inhabits the outer half of the continental shelf at depths of about 100– 200 m. Judging from the collection method for many of the specimens examined, the species likely inhabits hard bottom environments where trawling is rarely undertaken.

Remarks. Although the type of H. japonica was not examined for this study, there is no doubt to which species the name applies as only a single species referable to the genus occurs in the vicinity of the type locality (Yokohama) and Japanese literature has been consistent in its application. A number of authors ( Strasburg 1966; Struhsaker 1973; Borets 1986; Boehlert and Mundy 1992; Chave and Mundy 1994; Randall 2007) recorded this species from ridges and seamounts associated with the Hawaiian Island chain, but we are sceptical of these identifications, as were Struhsaker (1973), Randall (1976, 1981) and Tinker (1982, appendix), who regarded the species occurring in this area as being undescribed. Recent acquisition of loan material confirms this scepticism and the species is the subject of an ongoing study. Reports of H. japonica from the Australasian region ( Parin and Kotlyar 1989: 407, in part; Hoese Bray and Gates in Hoese et al. 2006: 464; Fricke et al. 2011: 358) are confirmed misidentifications.

Excellent images of the male and female forms of this species may be found in Matsunuma et al. (2008, fig. 2). Ranges for meristic and morphometric characters are provided in Table 2 and agree with those provided by the above authors.

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).