Uropterygius micropterus ( Bleeker 1852 )

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 : 69-70

Uropterygius micropterus ( Bleeker 1852) —Shortfin Snakemoray

( Figure 45 )

Muraena micropterus Bleeker 1852: 298 (Wahai, northern Ceram, Indonesia). Lectotype, BMNH 1867.11.28.326, designated by Böhlke & Smith 2002: 162.

Uropterygius micropterus: Randall & Golani 1995: 874 ; Golani & Bogorodsky 2010: 11; Golani & Fricke 2018: 24.

Red Sea material. Red Sea: HUJ 17559 (1, 220) , Gulf of Aqaba.

Comparative material. Indonesia: BMNH 1867.11 . 28.326 (1, 232, holotype); USNM 312805 (1, 200) . Philippines: USNM 289910 (1, 214) ; USNM 318405 (1, 178) . Taiwan: USNM 312855 (1, 239) . Mariana Is. : ANSP 71585 (1, 188, holotype of Uropterygius tinkhami Fowler ) ; ANSP 71586 (1, 74, paratype of U. tinkhami ) ; USNM 123942 (1, 189) ; USNM 132839 (3, 130–164) . Samoa: USNM 52284 (2, 168–170).

Description. In TL: preanal length 2.0–2.3, head length 8.1–9.9, body depth at anus 17–27. In head length: snout length 6.4–8.6, eye diameter 11–18, upper-jaw length 2.7–3.7. Pores: LL 1, SO 3, IO 4, POM 6. Vertebrae: predorsal 102–110, pre-anus 49–53, pre-anal fin 104–111, total 113–121.

Body moderate; anus slightly before midlength. Head moderate, jaws equal. Gill opening at mid-side. Eye moderate, slightly closer to tip of snout than to rictus. Anterior nostril tubular; posterior nostril above anterior margin of eye.

Teeth slender, conical, smooth. Intermaxillary with a peripheral row of small teeth, an intermediate row of 2–3 larger teeth, and 3 large, depressible median teeth. Maxillary teeth in two rows, the outer row small and closely set, the inner row larger and fewer; the two rows continuous with intermaxillary teeth. Dentary teeth biserial, the outer teeth small and numerous, the inner teeth larger and fewer. About 12 vomerine teeth in single row.

Color: light brown with irregular dark brown lines on upper two-thirds of head and body, partly interconnected to form a fine reticulum.

Maximum size about 250 mm.

Distribution and habitat. Indo-Pacific from the Red Sea south to South Africa (Durban), east to the Line Islands, Phoenix Islands, and Samoa Islands. Reported from rubble areas of intertidal reef flats, tide pools, and shallow reefs to a depth of 10 m.

Remarks. Randall & Golani (1995) reported the single record from the Red Sea based on a specimen from the Gulf of Aqaba. No obvious geographic variation is evident. Mitochondrial COI barcodes were retrieved for four specimens from BOLD (none of them from the Red Sea), and as they showed no substantial variation only one of them (FTWS419-09 from Taiwan) was included in the phylogeny ( Fig. 48 ). Specimens in this clade, originally identified as Strophidon sathete (a species of the subfamily Muraeninae ), were re-assigned herein as Uropterygius micropterus (see also Huang et al. 2019). The species forms part of a moderately well supported clade with lineages under the name U. macrocephalus (see remarks for U. macrocephalus ).

Figures

FIGURE 45. Uropterygius micropterus, 320 mm TL, fresh specimen, Iriomote Is., Japan. Photo by K. Hatooka.

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.