Physiculus sudanensis, Paulin, 1989

Biscoito, Manuel & González, José A., 2018, Physiculus sudanensis Paulin, 1989, a junior synonym of P. dalwigki Kaup, 1858 (Teleostei, Gadiformes, Moridae), with a redescription of P. dalwigki, Cybium 42 (2), pp. 189-194 : 193-194

Validity of P. sudanensis Paulin, 1989

After a comparison of the type material of P. suda �e�sis with the holotype and other material of P. dalwigki ( Tab. I), no significant differences between the two species could be observed. Most of the body proportions and meristic characters overlap or differences found are minimal. Moreover, Paulin (1989b) diagnosis of P. suda �e�sis cannot be of any use, as it is the result of a mixture of three different species: P. fed ���vi, P. be�telse�i ( Shcherbachev, 1993) and P. suda- �e�sis.

The type locality of P. suda �e�sis is well within the area of distribution of P. dalwigki , the eastern Atlantic Ocean and not the coast of Sudan in the Red Sea, as Paulin (1989b) erroneously gave. The genus Physiculus contains many species and is widespread in all major oceans, but individual species have fairly restricted geographical distributions ( Paulin, 1989a) and up to the present there are no known species occurring in more than one ocean basin ( Froese and Pauly, 2017).

Therefore we come to the conclusion that P. suda �e�sis ( Fig. 4 ) is a junior synonym of P. dalwigki .

Acknowledgements. – The authors are indebted to Romain Causse and Zora Gabsi (MNHN, Paris) and James Maclaine (NHM, London) for allowing the examination of the type material of P. suda �- e�sis and P. dalwigki , including taking radiographs. Thanks are also due to Guy Duhamel for his editorial work and to anonymous referees, which improved the original manuscript. Financial support (JAG) was received from the Government of the Canary Islands and the EU ERDF in the framework of the PCT MAC 2007-2013 project MARPROF-CV (MAC//3/C124) and (MB) from the Madeira Oceanic Observatory (Project M1420-01-0145-FEDER-000001 – Observatório Oceânico da Madeira -OOM) and Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), through the strategic project UID/ MAR/04292/2013 granted to MARE. This is contribution no. 39 of the Marine Biology Station of Funchal.

Figures

Figure 4. – Physiculus suda�e�sis, holotype, MNHN 1886-572. Scale bar = 10 mm.