Gymnothorax rueppelliae ( McClelland 1844 )

Smith, David G., Bogorodsky, Sergey V., Mal, Ahmad O. & Alpermann, Tilman J., 2019, Review of the moray eels (Anguilliformes: Muraenidae) of the Red Sea, with description of a new species, Zootaxa 4704 (1), pp. 1-87 : 57-58

Gymnothorax rueppelliae ( McClelland 1844) —Yellowhead Moray

( Figure 37 )

Dalophis rueppelliae McClelland 1844: 213 (Red Sea). Lectotype, SMF 151, designated by Böhlke 1982: 44.

Muraena umbrofasciata Rüppell 1852: 33 (Red Sea). Syntypes, SMF 151 (1), SMF 2870 (1, skeleton, lost), SMF 7346 (1, missing).

Muraena interrupta Kaup 1856: 67 , pl. 10 (fig. 51) (Clot Bay, Red Sea). Holotype (unique), MNHN B-2470.

Muraena Rüppellii : Klunzinger 1871: 615.

Lycodontis rueppelli: Dor 1984: 29 .

Gymnothorax rueppelli: Goren & Dor 1994: 7 .

Gymnothorax rueppelliae: Randall & Golani 1995: 867 ; Debelius 1998: 12; Khalaf 2004: 37; Lieske & Myers 2004: 38; Golani & Bogorodsky 2010: 10; Golani & Fricke 2018: 23.

Red Sea material. Red Sea: SMF 151 (1, 390, lectotype) ; SMF 7346 (1, 245, paralectotype of Dalophis rueppelliae ) ; MNHN B.2470 (1, 440, holotype of Muraena interrupta Kaup ). Israel: HUJ 15145 (1, 500), Eilat; HUJ 15161 (1, 165), Eilat . Egypt: BPBM 35737 (2, 191–265), Gulf of Aqaba , Nabq ; HUJ 4859 (2, 161–230), Ras Muhammad ; HUJ 4959 (1, 88); HUJ 15090 (2, 82–86), Gulf of Aqaba , El Arkana ; HUJ 15117 (11, 245–420); HUJ 15121 (1, 192), Gulf of Aqaba, El Arkana; HUJ 15137 (cited by Randall & Golani, 1995, number of specimens and lengths not given), Nabq ; USNM 312676 (5, 173–385), Strait of Jubal . Saudi Arabia: USNM 147431 (1, 391), 5 km north of Jeddah .

Comparative material. Mauritius: MCZ 6147 (1, 180, holotype of Gymnothorax signifer Bliss ) . Indonesia: BMNH 1867.11 .28.282 (1, 457, holotype of Muraena petelli Bleeker ) ; RMNH 7187 (1, 235). Hawaii : USNM 50682 (1, 504, holotype of Gymnothorax leucacme Jenkins ) ; USNM 50870 (1, 102, holotype of Gymnothorax waialuae Snyder ) . French Polynesia, Moorea: MNHN 2008-0317 (1, 136). Galapagos Is. (?) : USNM 20385 (1, ca 235, holotype of Siderea chlevastes Jordan and Gilbert) .

Description. In TL: preanal length 2.1–2.3, predorsal length 8.5–10, head length 7.6–8.3, body depth at anus 14–22. In head length: snout length 5.1–5.9, eye diameter 8.3–9.9, upper-jaw length 2.3–2.7. Pores: LL 2, SO 3, IO 4, POM 6. Vertebrae: predorsal 4–5, preanal 50–55, total 124–135.

Body moderately elongate, anus slightly before midlength, dorsal-fin origin before gill opening. Jaws moderate, equal length. Eye moderate, over middle of upper jaw. Anterior nostril tubular, reaching edge of lip when depressed; posterior nostril elliptical with a raised rim, above anterior margin of eye.

Teeth smooth, slender, acute. Intermaxillary teeth in one peripheral series, about 6 on each side, and three median teeth. Maxillary teeth biserial, about 1–3 larger inner teeth, 11–15 smaller outer teeth. Dentary with 2–3 larger inner teeth anteriorly, 18–25 outer teeth. Vomerine teeth small, uniserial.

Color: light grayish brown with 16–22 dark brown bars about as wide as pale interspaces on head, body, and fins, those on head and trunk not reaching ventral margin (dark bars may be obscure on large adults); top of head yellow; abdomen and margin of dorsal fin between dark bars white; top of head yellow; a dark brown spot at corner of mouth; anterior nostrils blackish.

Maximum size about 800 mm.

Distribution and habitat. Widespread from the western Indian Ocean east to the Hawaiian Islands and French Polynesia. Occurs on coral reefs and rocky substrata at depths of 1–55 m, often observed on reef flats at night.

Remarks. Randall & Golani (1995) reported a marked difference in number of vertebrae between eight specimens from the Red Sea (124–128) and 10 specimens from Mauritius and Oceania (130–134). Our own data support this: three specimens from the Red Sea have 126–127 vertebrae whereas four specimens from the Pacific have 131–135 vertebrae. We have no genetic data from the Red Sea, and therefore cannot add information from this side towards the existence of a potential population divergence. The two specimens included in the COI based phylogeny ( Fig. 48 ), did not associate closely to any other lineage. In the multigene phylogeny by Reece et al. (2010), however, the species was part of a well-supported clade including among other species G. undulatus (originally identified as G. polyuranodon (Bleeker) in Reece et al. 2010 ) and G. fimbriatus , two species that are associated with G. rueppelliae in the present analysis as well, although this grouping did not receive support from bootstrapped analyses. Two other COI sequences were found for specimens identified as G. rueppelliae (i.e., ANGBF9290-12 from China and FOAN927-11from Queensland, Australia), but due to their phylogenetic placement these two specimens were re-assigned to Gymnothorax minor and Gymnothorax sp., respectively ( Fig. 48 ).

Figures

FIGURE 37. Gymnothorax rueppelliae, Dahab, Egypt. Photo by S.V. Bogorodsky.

FIGURE 48. Unrooted maximum likelihood phylogeny of Indo-Pacific moray eels (Muraenidae) based on partial mitochondrial COI. Branch support values were obtained by 100 bootstrapped replicates; only bootstrap values above 50 percent are shown. The scale bar represents average number of nucleotide substitutions. (A) = specimen sequenced in this study; (B) = sequence retrieved from BOLD; (C) sequence retrieved from CRIOBE; (G) = sequence retrieved from GenBank; (R) = sequence retrieved from Reece et al. (2010); (ID) = species ID re-assigned herein; (ID-H) = specimen re-assigned as of Huang et al. (2019); (SAU) = collected in Saudi Arabia; (ISR) = collected in Israel.