Pempheris gasparinii, Pinheiro, Hudson T., Bernardi, Giacomo & Rocha, Luiz A., 2016

Pinheiro, Hudson T., Bernardi, Giacomo & Rocha, Luiz A., 2016, Pempherisgasparinii, a new species of sweeper fish from Trindade Island, southwestern Atlantic (Teleostei, Pempheridae), ZooKeys 561, pp. 105-115 : 107-110

Taxon classification Animalia Perciformes Pempheridae

Pempheris gasparinii sp. n. Figs 1, 2, Trindade sweeper

Pempheris poeyi : Miranda-Ribeiro 1919: 173

Pempheris poeyi : Pinheiro et al. 2009: 49

Pempheris poeyi : Simon et al. 2013: 2121

Pempheris poeyi : Pinheiro et al. 2015: 20

Type locality.

Trindade Island, Espírito Santo State, Brazil.

Holotype.

CIUFES 2432, 64.5 mm SL, GenBank KJ609406, Parcel pool, Trindade Island, Espírito Santo, Brazil. 20°30'S, 29°20'W, depth 1 m, collected by HT Pinheiro and JL Gasparini, 25 Jun 2009 (Figure 2).

Paratypes.

CAS 238409, 68.0 mm SL, CAS 238410, 60.5 mm SL, CIUFES 2432, 64.6 mm SL, ZUEC PIS 11233, 59.1 SL. Same data as holotype.

Comparative material.

Pempheris poeyi : CAS 238411 (one specimen, 52.7 mm SL, Curaçao), USNM 318952 (two specimens, 34.6 and 39.1 mm SL, Tobago), USNM 354575 (two specimens, 28.6 and 29.0 mm SL, Tobago); Pempheris schomburgkii : CAS 1595 (one specimen, 92.7 mm SL, Bahia, Brazil), CAS 32060 (two specimens, 48.7 and 39.7 mm SL, Barbados), CAS 236600 (one specimen, 99.2 mm SL, Curaçao), CAS 236604 (one specimen, 103.4 mm SL, Curaçao).

Diagnosis.

Pempheris gasparinii differs from its congeners by the following combination of character states: Head 3.2-3.7 in SL; body depth 2.7 in SL; head length 3.2-3.7 in SL; orbit diameter 1.9-2.7 in HL; caudal-peduncle depth 2.7-3.3 in HL; dorsal rays IV, 8-9; anal-fin rays III, 24-25; pectoral rays 15; lateral-line scales 51-54; scales below the lateral line 10-11; circumpeduncular scales 11-12; and gill rakers 23-25. Color in life mostly silvery, darker from mid-body to the lateral line and greenish above; fins are translucent with a darker tail. Color in alcohol light brown to silvery with darker dorsum and translucent fins; caudal fin darker. Additionally, mitochondrial DNA COI sequences show a divergence of at least 4% from all Atlantic congeners.

Description.

Dorsal-fin rays IV, 8 (IV, 8-9), all segmented rays branched; anal rays III, 24 (III, 24-25), first internal, all segmented rays branched; pectoral rays 15, the first rudimentary, second unbranched, remaining rays branched; pelvic rays I V (I V); principal caudal rays 9+9 (9-10+9), the median 16 branched (16-17); upper+lower procurrent caudal rays 6+6 (6 –8+5– 6), the most posterior of each side segmented dis tally; lateral-line scales 54 (51-53) to the base of the caudal fin, pored scales continuing to the end of the fin; gill rakers 6+19 = 25 (4 –6+19– 21).

Body moderately deep and compressed. Depth 2.7 (2.7) in SL and width 2.6 (2.4-2.7) in body depth; head length 3.2 (3.2-3.7) in SL and dorsal profile of head moderately convex; snout very short, 5.8 (6.3-8.2) in HL; orbit diameter 2.7 (1.9-2.4) in HL; interorbital width 2.5 (2.1-3.7) in HL; caudal-peduncle depth 3.3 (2.7-3.1) in HL; caudal-peduncle length 4.5 (2.7-4.1) in HL.

Mouth oblique, forming ~60°angle to horizontal axis of body; lower jaw slightly protruding when mouth fully closed; maxilla expanding posteriorly to a width two-thirds pupil diameter; upper jaw teeth very small, sharp, incurved, in two irregular rows anteriorly, narrowing to a single row posteriorly; lower jaw teeth small, in a patch with three to four irregular rows, outer one or two rows sharply nodular, inner two rows strongly recurved and narrowly sharp; vomer with expanded V-shaped patch (three to four irregular rows) of very small nodular teeth; palatines with a long and narrow patch (two irregular rows anteriorly to one posteriorly) of very small and medially curved teeth; tongue diamond shaped, upper surface with small papillae.

Gill rakers long, longest gill filaments two-thirds the length of longest gill raker. Gill opening extending dorsally, near level of center of orbit. Margin of preopercle smooth. Anterior and posterior nostril apertures vertically oval, positioned in front of dorsal edge of pupil, and separated by narrow septum; no membranous flap on nostril edges. Most scales cycloid, except finely ctenoid posteriorly in interorbital area, on nape, on dorsal area posteriorly to dorsal fin, and above lateral line and chest. Small scales covering slightly more than basal half of anal fin and slightly less than half of caudal fin.

Origin of dorsal fin posterior to vertical alignment of rear base of pectoral fin; predorsal length 2.4 (2.3-2.5) in SL; dorsal-fin base 6.4 (5.7-6.7) in SL; first dorsal spine short, 6.4 (6.6-8.0) in HL; fourth dorsal spine longest, 1.8 (1.4-1.8) in HL; first or second dorsal segmented rays longest, 1.4 (1.4) in HL; origin of anal fin aligned with end of dorsal fin base, preanal length 1.7 (1.7-1.8) in SL; anal-fin base short, 2.9 (2.7-2.9) in SL; first anal spine internal and very short; third anal spine short, 7.3 (6.7-8.8) in HL; longest anal segmented ray 3.4 (3.1-3.5) in HL; caudal-fin length 3.5 (4.0-4.4) in SL; caudal concavity 1.8 (1.6-1.8) in HL; second or third branched pectoral ray usually longest, 4.1 (3.9-4.3) in SL; origin of pelvic fins slightly posterior to rear base of pectoral fins, prepelvic length 2.6 (2.6-2.9) in SL; pelvic spine 3.3 (2.9-3.8) in HL; pelvic-fin length 2.1 (2.1-2.4) in HL.

Color in life.

Body mostly silvery, darker from mid-body to lateral line and greenish above; fins translucent with a darker tail (Figure 1).

Color in alcohol.

Body light brown, darker dorsally; fins pale except caudal fin with basal melanophores (Figure 2).

Etymology.

The specific name honors our ichthyologist colleague and friend João Luiz Rosetti Gasparini, one of the pioneers on the study of taxonomy and biodiversity of reef fishes in Brazil and Trindade Island. “Gaspa” has contributed to nearly half of the descriptions of reef-fish species from Brazilian waters in the last two decades. To be treated as a noun in apposition.

Distribution and habitat.

Pempheris gasparinii sp. n. is known only from the type locality, Trindade Island, Espírito Santo, Brazil. It has only been found schooling in the very shallow waters of the rocky Parcel pools (Figure 3).

Genetic data.

A maximum likelihood phylogenetic reconstruction of Atlantic Pempheris , based on the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase 1 (CO1) marker, is presented in Figure 4. The Kimura-2 genetic distance between Pempheris gasparinii sp. n. and its closest relative ( Pempheris poeyi ) is 4%.

Comparative remarks.

Pempheris gasparinii differs from its Atlantic Ocean congeners by the smaller number of soft anal-fin rays (24-25) compared to Pempheris schomburgkii (31-34), and greater number of lateral-line scales (51-54) and scales below the lateral line (10-11) compared to Pempheris poeyi (47-49, and 9 scales respectively). Pempheris gasparinii also has fewer circumpeduncular scales (11-12 vs 13), a smaller head (3.2-3.7 vs 2.8-3.1 in SL) and higher caudal peduncle depth (2.7-3.3 vs 3.5-4.0 in head length) compared to Pempheris poeyi .