Mulloidichthys flavolineatus flavolineatus ( Lacepede , 1801)

Fernandez-Silva, Iria, Randall, John E., Golani, Daniel & Bogorodsky, Sergey V., 2016, Mulloidichthysflavolineatusflavicaudus Fernandez-Silva & Randall (Perciformes, Mullidae), a new subspecies of goatfish from the Red Sea and Arabian Sea, ZooKeys 605, pp. 131-157 : 140-144

Taxon classification Animalia Perciformes Mullidae

Mulloidichthys flavolineatus flavolineatus ( Lacepede, 1801) Figures 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 14; Tables 1, 2, 3, 4

Mullus flavolineatus Lacepède, 1801: 384, 406 (locality unknown, no types known).

Mulloidichthys flavolineatus ( Lacepède 1801): Randall and Anderson 1993: 20 (Maldives); Randall et al. 1997: 208 (Great Barrier Reef); Kuiter 1998: 117 (Maldives: in part, upper photo); Anderson 2005: 57 (Maldives); Allen et al. 2007: 122 (Christmas Island); Okamura and Okamoto 1997: 373 (Japan); Randall 2007: 260 (Hawaiian Islands); Myers 1999: 159, Pl. 74H (Micronesia); Matsunuma et al. 2011: 142 (Malaysia); Uiblein 2011: 59 & 69, Pl. 1 (description, color images); Allen and Erdmann 2012: 504 (Philippines).

Neotype.

BPBM 20135, 162 mm SL, Indian Ocean, Mauritius, East Coast, Oyster Bay (19°43'S; 63°21'E), 1 November 1973, coll. J.E. Randall.

Non-type material.

Hawaiian Islands: BPBM 28726, 83 mm SL, Kona Coast, South Kohala; BPBM 4087, 288 mm SL, Laysan; BPBM 4086, 180 mm SL, Laysan; BPBM 4088, 2: 139-230 mm SL, Lisiansky; BPBM 25457, 130 mm SL, O‘ahu, Wai‘anae coast; BPBM 25674, 175 mm SL, O‘ahu; BPBM 1749, 183 mm SL, O‘ahu; BPBM 1750, 173 mm SL, O‘ahu; BPBM 15308, 152 mm SL, Midway Atoll; BPBM 25517, 119 mm SL, Midway Atoll; USNM 147073, 158 mm SL, Midway Atoll. Johnston Atoll: BPBM 4090, 85 mm SL; BPBM 4091, 93 mm SL; BPBM 7520, 166 mm SL; Philippines: USNM 327877, 107 mm SL, Sorsogon, Gubat Bay; USNM 405724, 209 mm SL, W Luzon, Port Matalvi; USNM 147062, 222 mm SL, Mindoro, Varadero Bay; USNM 147066, 169 mm SL, W Luzon, Zambales; USNM 322272, 3: 138-155 mm SL, Babuyan, Maybag Island; USNM 147069, 2: 171-176 mm SL, Batangas, Maricaban; USNM 84231, 128 mm SL, Mindanao, Zamboanga; USNM 84232, 139 mm SL, Mindanao, Zamboanga; USNM 147070, 164 mm SL, Palawan, Candaraman; USNM 147072, 145 mm SL, Tulayan Island, Jolo; USNM 145294, 2: 98-100 mm SL; USNM 147065, 231 mm SL, Sulu, Siasi Island; USNM 147076, 135 mm SL, Sulu, Simaluc Island, Tawi Tawi. Indonesia: USNM 147067, 221 mm SL, Moluccas, Bouru Island; USNM 147064, 3: 195-205 mm SL, Moluccas, Makian I; USNM 405723, 200 mm SL, Moluccas, Makian Island; USNM 267514, 2: 102-126 mm SL, Mentawai Islands, Pulau Siburu; USNM 267503, 2: 155-156 mm SL, Mentawai Islands, Pulau Siburu; USNM 147058, 203 mm SL, Sulawesi, Talisse Island; USNM 87989, 255 mm SL, Sumatra, Poeloe Toekus; USNM 75887, 250 mm SL, Borneo, Tandjoeng, Setebah. Cocos-Keeling: SU 35630, 200 mm SL, Cocos-Keeling I. Papua New Guinea: USNM 267499, 203 mm SL, Trobriand Kuia Islands; USNM 267515, 2: 116-120 SL, New Britain, Rabaul. Solomon Islands: USNM 382371, 205 mm SL, Santa Cruz Islands. Micronesia: BPBM 77, 8: 75-230 mm SL, Guam; BPBM 4089, 3: 209-220 mm SL, Wake Island; BPBM 24628, 12: 79-160 mm SL, Chuuk, Puluwat Atoll. Japan: BPBM 7086, 2: 88-108 mm SL, Minami-Tori Shima; BPBM 7087, 210 mm SL, Minami-Tori Shima. South Pacific: BPBM 27868, 5: 81-119 mm SL, Samoan Islands, Tutuila Island; BPBM 27906, 3: 84-107 mm SL, Samoan Islands, Tutuila Island; BPBM 15299, 16: 81-159 mm SL, Phoenix Islands, Orona Atoll; BPBM 12937, 165 mm SL, Rapa; BPBM 2136, 198 mm SL, Marquesas Islands, Nuku Hiva. Western Indian Ocean: USNM 229036, 9: 129-192 mm SL, Chagos Archipelago, Salomon Atoll; CAS 237312, 2: 137-144 mm SL, Maldives, Faafu Atoll; BPBM 34673, 2: 107-115 mm SL, Maldives, N Malé Atoll; CAS 35383, 2: 85.5-142 mm SL, Maldives, Malé Atoll; BPBM 41252, 2: 120-135 mm SL, Mauritius, Oyster Bay.

Diagnosis.

Body elongate, the depth at first dorsal-fin origin 4.0-4.6 in SL; head moderately compressed, the length 2.9-3.8 in SL; snout long, slightly blunt anteriorly. Barbels usually not reaching a vertical at posterior margin of preopercle, their length 3.7-6.0 in SL. Eye diameter 10.1-15.6 in SL. Pectoral-fin rays 16-18. Gill-raker counts 27-29 (rarely 26 or 30); lateral-line scales 37-40 (usually 38). Caudal fin varying from usually white or light gray to occasionally yellowish or yellow.

Color.

Silvery white to yellowish, slightly darker over lateral line, margins of each scale on upper half of body darker than scale. Yellow stripe on side of body at level of eye, beginning from posterior margin of orbit and ending at caudal-fin base, bordered by two whitish narrow stripes (sometimes slightly blue); the stripe usually containing a black spot above posterior part of pectoral fins (under the first dorsal fin), sometimes faint due to fading, stripe anterior to spot occasionally indistinct; barbels white; dorsal fins usually transparent, sometimes first dorsal fin with yellowish tinge; pectoral, anal, and pelvic fins whitish, translucent; caudal fin varying from usually white or light gray to occasionally yellowish or yellow. Sometimes body color pattern of broad irregular red-brown bars, especially at night. When fresh, body color can turn pink and all fins yellow. Uniformly creamy white in preservative.

Distribution.

Mulloidichthys flavolineatus flavolineatus is wide-ranging from East Africa north to the Maldives and Chagos Archipelago and east to the Hawaiian, Marquesas and Pitcairn Islands, north to the Ryukyu and Bonin Islands and south to Lord Howe Island, New Caledonia and Rapa Island ( Randall 2002, Uiblein 2011) (Fig. 15).

Genetics.

The parsimony-based haplotype networks constructed with mtDNA cytb sequences from 217 Mulloidichthys flavolineatus specimens revealed a separation between individuals from the NW Indian Ocean (including the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and Oman) and individuals in the rest of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean (Fig. 16). Corrected genetic distance was 1.7%, with seven diagnostic mutations ( Fernandez-Silva et al. 2015).

We obtained a concatenated alignment of a 715-bp segment of the cytb gene and a 731-bp segment of the ATPase-8 and ATPase-6 genes of the mitochondrial genome from seven individuals from the Red Sea (Jeddah) and five from the Pacific ( Hawai‘i and Okinawa). Phylogenetic reconstructions based on Bayesian inference (Fig. 17) revealed a genetic break and the presence of two well-supported monophyletic clades (posterior probability = 1): one with sequences from the Red Sea and one with the haplotypes from the Pacific. Reconstructions based on the Maximum-Likelihood and Neighbor-Joining methods were in agreement with this topology but clades had lower statistical support (results not shown).