Conniella apterygia, Allen, 1983

Tea, Yi-Kai, Allen, Gerald R., Goatley, Christopher H. R., Gill, Anthony C. & Frable, Benjamin W., 2021, Redescription of Conniella apterygia Allen and its reassignment in the genus Cirrhilabrus Temminck and Schlegel (Teleostei: Labridae), with comments on cirrhilabrin pelvic morphology, Zootaxa 5061 (3), pp. 493-509 : 494-495

Identity of Conniella apterygia

The general morphology, meristic values, dentition, serrations on the preopercle, and fin shape of Conniella apterygia are in general agreement with the genus Cirrhilabrus . In particular, the lanceolate caudal fin is unusual among cirrhilabrin genera, but typical for several species of Cirrhilabrus . Elongation of the central principal caudal-fin rays also occurs for one species of Paracheilinus ( P. attenuatus Randall, 1999 ). However, Conniella apterygia differs from P. attenuatus and all other species of Paracheilinus in having XI,9 dorsal rays (versus IX,11), serrations on the preopercle, and in lacking filamentous segmented dorsal-fin rays.

The absence of pelvic fins and the pelvic girdle has been the sole justification separating Conniella from Cirrhilabrus . Owing to the rarity of Conniella , complete representation of the cirrhilabrins has been lacking in both morphological and molecular studies. These relationships have recently been investigated for the first time using a large phylogenomic dataset, revealing Conniella to be deeply nested within Cirrhilabrus ( Tea et al. 2021b) . Due to the current lack of a morphological diagnosis supporting Conniella , and its nested position within Cirrhilabrus in the molecular phylogeny of Tea et al. (2021b), we recommend placement of Conniella within the synonymy of Cirrhilabrus .