Lutjanus campechanus (Poey 1860)

Ceríaco, Luis M. P., Santos, Bruna S., Semedo, Thiago B. F., Garcia, Lucas Canes & Moreira, Cristiano Rangel, 2023, The fish collection of José Mariano da Conceição Veloso (1742 - 1811) and the beginning of ichthyological research in Brazil, with a taxonomic description of the extant specimens, Zootaxa 5391 (1), pp. 1-85 : 60-62

Lutjanus campechanus (Poey 1860)

Extant specimens: ACL-HN-0057 ( Fig. 47 ).

Classification on the specimen: “P. Th. Sparus variegatus ”.

Common names on the specimen (Portuguese/Tupi): “Vermelho”/ “Caranha” (see comments).

Comments: This species was undescribed at the time Veloso prepared it. Sparus variegatus Bonnaterre 1788 [= Spicara melanurus (Valenciennes 1830) ], is an Eastern Atlantic sparid morphologically very distinct from Lutjanus campechanus . This could suggest that Veloso intended to describe this species as new, and coincidently used the same species name. This species is described in detail in the Ichthyologia Fluminensis. There are 67 herborized specimens of Sparus in the Ajuda inventory ( Ferreira 1794), and two specimens of Sparus variegatus are listed in the transference document to Lisboa, being this specimen, one of them. In the Ichthyologia Fluminensis, Veloso stated that the common name “Caranha” is a corruption of the ancient Tupi name “Acara áya”, a conclusion corroborated by Navarro (2013). Antunes & Balbino (2003) identified the specimen as Lutjanus purpureus (Poey 1860) , a synonym of L. campechanus . Lutjanus campechanus occurs in the Western Atlantic from North Carolina ( USA) to São Paulo ( Brazil) ( Menezes & Figueiredo 1980; Anderson Jr 2002). This species is classified as “Vulnerable” in Brazil (IUCN criteria; ICMBIO 2018).

Figures

FIGURE 47. Lutjanus campechanus (Poey 1860), ACL-HN-0057, 600 mm SL. Photo by Luis M. P. Ceríaco.