Centropomus ensiferus Poey, 1860

Figueiredo-Filho, Jessé Miranda De, Marceniuk, Alexandre P., Feijó, Anderson, Siccha-Ramirez, Raquel, Ribeiro, Giovana S., Oliveira, Claudio & Rosa, Ricardo S., 2021, Taxonomy of Centropomus Lacépède, 1802 (Perciformes: Centropomidae), with focus on the Atlantic species of the genus, Zootaxa 4942 (3), pp. 301-338 : 323-324

Centropomus ensiferus Poey, 1860

( Figure 14 )

Centropomus ensiferus Poey, 1860: 122 (original description; Cuba)

Centropomus affinis Steindachner, 1864: 1

Centropomus scaber Bocourt, 1868: 90

Centropomus altus Regan, 1907: 53

Centropomus macrochirus Poey, 1955: 245

Type. MCZ 10299, 206 mm SL ( Fig. 14 ), loc.: Cuba .

Poey (1860) described C. ensiferus based on a single 205 mm TL specimen. However, Rivas (1986) stated that no specimen qualified as a holotype could be found in the MCZ, USNM, or any other museum. The neotype (MCZ 10299) is a specimen of 206 mm SL designated by Rivas (1986), from Cuba, sent from Poey to Agassiz as a representative specimen of C. ensiferus .

Diagnosis. Centropomus ensiferus has the second anal-fin spine extremely long, extending far beyond the caudal fin origin when adpressed. Other characters that differ from congeners are:

Western Atlantic: from C. undecimalis , by having 48–58 scales on lateral line to caudal-fin base (vs 66–75), 10–15 lower limb gill rakers on first arch (vs 8–11), 15–20 gill rakers on first arch (vs 11–14), the longest anal-fin spine reaching caudal-fin base when adpressed (vs longest anal-fin spine not reaching caudal-fin base), and a less elongate and higher body, with a mean body height of 25.9% SL (vs more elongate and lower body, with a mean body height of 22.9% SL); from C. irae , by having 48–58 scales on lateral line to caudal-fin base (vs 79–96), 10–15 lower limb gill rakers on first arch (vs 7–8), 15–20 gill rakers on first arch (vs 11–13), the longest anal-fin spine reaching caudal-fin base when adpressed (vs longest anal-fin spine not reaching caudal-fin base), and a less elongate and higher body, with a mean body height of 25.9% SL (vs more elongate and lower body, with a mean body height of 22.3% SL); from C. parallelus , by having 48–58 scales on lateral line to caudal-fin base (vs 64–70), 10–15 lower limb gill rakers on first arch (vs 10–13), 15–20 gill rakers on first arch (vs 13–18), and pelvic fin usually not reaching the anus (vs pelvic fin usually reaching anus); from C. pectinatus , by having 48–58 scales on lateral line to caudalfin base (vs 47–52), 10–15 lower limb gill rakers on first arch (vs 14–16), 15–20 gill rakers on first arch (vs 20–23), the second anal-fin spine longer than the third, and when adpressed, reaching caudal-fin base (vs third anal-fin spine longer than the second, reaching caudal-fin base), pelvic fin usually not reaching the anus (vs pelvic fin reaching anus), and anal fin with III,7 (vs III,8); from C. poeyi , by having 48–58 scales on lateral line to caudal-fin base (vs 69–74), 10–15 lower limb gill rakers on first arch (vs 9–12), and second dorsal fin with I,11 (vs I,9).

Eastern Pacific: from C. nigrescens , by having 48–58 scales on lateral line to caudal-fin base (vs 68–76), 10–15 lower limb gill rakers on first arch (vs 8–9); 15–20 gill rakers on first arch (vs 11–14), and the longest anal-fin spine reaching caudal-fin base when adpressed (vs longest anal-fin spine not reaching caudal-fin base); from C. viridis , by having 48–58 scales on lateral line to caudal-fin base (vs 67–75), 10–15 lower limb gill rakers on first arch (vs 9–12); 15–20 gill rakers on first arch (vs 14–15), the longest anal-fin spine reaching caudal-fin base when adpressed (vs longest anal-fin spine not reaching caudal-fin base); and second dorsal fin with I,11 (vs I,9); from C. armatus , by having the second anal-fin spine extremely long, extending beyond caudal-fin base when adpressed (vs shorter second anal-fin spine, reaching caudal-fin base); from C. robalito , by having 10–15 lower limb gill rakers on first arch (vs 14–17); and 15–20 gill rakers on first arch (vs 21–25); from C. unionensis , by having 48–58 scales on lateral line to caudal-fin base (vs 46–52), the longest anal-fin spine reaching caudal-fin base when adpressed (vs longest analfin spine not reaching caudal-fin base), and second dorsal fin with I,11 (vs I,9); from C. medius , by having 48–58 scales on lateral line to caudal-fin base (vs 53–65), 10–15 lower limb gill rakers on first arch (vs 14–16); 15–20 gill rakers on first arch (vs 18–23), the longest anal-fin spine reaching caudal-fin base when adpressed (vs longest analfin spine not reaching caudal-fin base), and anal fin with III,7 (vs III,8).

Molecular data. Specimens of C. ensiferus form a cluster with 100% bootstrap value in the COI sequences analysis ( Figure 8 ). The genetic distance between C. ensiferus and C. armatus is 0.112 ( Table 7). The genetic analyses indicate that C. ensiferus is the sister group of C. unionensis .

Description. Morphometrics and meristics data are summarized in Tables 8, 9 and 10 on the basis of 10 specimens, 41.4–345.0 mm TL (193.4 mm average). Body slightly elongate, body height moderate, mean body height 25.9% SL (22.4%–28.6%); head moderately elongate, mean head length 38.0% SL (34.9%–41.5%); head moderately high, mean head height 23.5% SL (20.2%–28.4%); largest specimen measured 285 mm SL. Lower jaw protractile, longer than upper jaw, extending beyond tip of snout. Snout narrow and long, mean snout length 11.4% SL (10.4%–12.7%); eye relatively small, mean orbit diameter 12.3% HL. Preoperculum heavily serrated in adults; operculum smooth, without spines, bordered by a membrane that extends beyond origin of pectoral fin; 3–6 small spines in dorsal part of operculum.

Dorsal fins separated by a small gap, not connected by membrane, first dorsal fin VIII, second dorsal fin I,11. Pectoral fin with 14–16 rays, longest ray extending beyond origin of pelvic fin. Pelvic fin I,5, longest ray usually not reaching anus. Anal fin III,7 (rarely III,8), second spine extremely long, longer than third spine, extending far beyond caudal fin origin when adpressed. Caudal fin deeply forked. Lateral line with ctenoid scales, extending onto caudal fin. Lateral line with 45–58 scales to caudal-fin base, usually 48–58; 48–62 scales extending onto end of caudal fin. Scale rows between lateral line and origin of second dorsal fin 7–10; scale rows between lateral line and origin of anal fin 10–11. 10–18 (usually 10–15) lower limb gill rakers on first arch; 15–26 (usually 15–20) gill rakers on first arch, excluding rudiments; 14–20 (usually 18–20) gill rakers on second arch, including rudiments.

Distribution. Centropomus ensiferus occurs from south Florida, Gulf of Mexico, along the Antilles, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The occurrence of C. ensiferus in S„o Paulo indicated by Carvalho-Filho et al. (2019) is erroneous, since the specimen in which that record was based (MZUSP 71557) was examined herein and identified as C. parallelus , based on the presence of 68 scales in the lateral line ( C. ensiferus has 48–58 scales in the lateral line).

Figures

FIGURE 8. Best maximum likelihood tree of Centropomus species elaborated with partial COI sequences. Numbers in the branches represent the percentage of occurrence of each group in 1000 pseudoreplicates by bootstrap. Values lower than 50% are not showed. Log likelihood = -3507.12.

FIGURE 14. Neotype of Centropomus ensiferus Poey, 1860, MCZ 10299, 206 mm SL. Photo: Meaghan Sorce, MCZ.