Eugerres brasilianus (Cuvier 1830)

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 : 58

Eugerres brasilianus (Cuvier 1830)

Extant specimens: MCUC ZOO.0000032 ( Fig. 43 ).

Classification on the specimen: “P. Th. Sciaena gibba ”.

Common names on the specimen (Portuguese/Tupi): None/ “Acarâpeba”.

Comments: This species was undescribed at the time Veloso prepared it. The specific names seem to be a subsequent classification, as “ gibba ” is written on a piece of paper affixed over a previous specific name. While we cannot be sure what name it was originally attributed to this specimen, we believe it could have been Sciaena punctata , the same name Veloso used for this species in the Ichthyologia Fluminensis manuscript. A species with the same name, Sciaena punctata Bloch 1792 (= Dicentrarchus punctatus ), exists and it occurs in the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Atlantic. However, both species are very distinct and unlikely to be confused. As “ punctata ” is a commons specific name, we believe Veloso intended to describe this species with a name that was coincidently used for in the same genus a few years later. Sciaena gibba Forsskål 1775 (= Lutjanus gibbus ) is also distinct from Eugerres brasilianus but has a deeper body than D. punctatus . The Ajuda’s inventory ( Ferreira 1794) lists 38 herborized specimens of Sciaena , but none are mentioned in the transference list to Coimbra. There is one specimen of Sciaena punctata on the transference list to Lisboa, but this specimen is not extant. This species is known in parts of Brazil as “carapeba” a derivation of the ancient Tupi common name. Eugerres occurs in the Western Atlantic from Cuba to Santa Catarina ( Brazil) ( Menezes & Figueiredo 1980; Gilmore 2002).

Figures

FIGURE 43. Eugerres brasilianus (Cuvier 1830), MCUC ZOO.0000032, 365 mm SL. Photo by Luis M. P. Ceríaco.