Hippocampus zosterae

Sara A. Lourie, Riley A. Pollom & Sarah J. Foster, 2016, A global revision of the Seahorses Hippocampus Rafinesque 1810 (Actinopterygii: Syngnathiformes): Taxonomy and biogeography with recommendations for further research, Zootaxa 4146 (1), pp. 1-66 : 45

H. zosterae Jordan & Gilbert 1882

English common names. Dwarf Seahorse.

Synonyms. H. rosamondae Borodin 1928 , H. regulus Ginsburg 1933 .

Syntypes. MNHN 1887-0515, CAS-SU 1671 (2), USNM 30852 (2 or 1, not found in 1980).

Type locality. Laguna Grande, Pensacola , Florida .

Distribution. Bahamas, Mexico, USA (Gulf of Mexico).

Notes. The type specimen of H. lichtensteinii is thought to possibly be H. zosterae and to have been mistakenly labelled as being from the Red Sea ( Kaup 1856—See Appendix P and Species Inquirenda below). Although populations throughout the Floridian portion of the species’ range exhibit gene flow, mtDNA evidence (1,450 bp, ND4, D-loop, CO1) suggests four distinct subpopulations (overall F ST = 0.47, average nucleotide diversity within populations = 0.49%) ( Fedrizzi et al. 2015).