Upeneus pori Ben-Tuvia et Golani, 1989

Luo, Zhisen, Yi, Murong, Gu, Sui, Lin, Hung-Du & Yan, Yunrong, 2023, A new record of Upeneus pori (Actinopterygii: Syngnathiformes: Mullidae) from the South China Sea: Integrating morphology and DNA barcoding, Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 53, pp. 137-145 : 137

Upeneus pori Ben-Tuvia et Golani, 1989

(Figs 2 and 3

Morphological characteristics.

The morphometric measurements are shown in Table 2 . Head medium, obtuse, and conical; body laterally compressed and elongated; maxilla slightly longer than the mandible; cordiform teeth present in both jaws, palatine, and vomer; single complete lateral-line on each body side; snout slightly inferior; body with rhomboidal ctenoid scales; two separate dorsal-fins; two barbels on the chin; upper lobe of the caudal fin larger than the lower lobe.

Color.

Mainly based on recently deceased specimens (Fig. 2A ). Dorsally darkened, head and sides reddish-brown, belly whitish; mid-lateral body with faint brownish-red bar running from snout to base of caudal fin in fresh fish; barbels white or creamy white; first and second dorsal-fins with 3-4 sets of reddish-brown spots running horizontally; pectoral fins cream-colored to transparent; pelvic fins creamy-white and base of fins with several yellow marks; anal fin rays whitish with transparent membranes; upper lobe of caudal fin with 4-5 oblique reddish-brown stripes intersecting rays; middle part of lower lobe of caudal fin with wide reddish-brown band extending from base of caudal fin to tip of lower lobe; 3-4 red-brown stripes above wide band; 6-7 stripes with same color below wide band and all stripes approximately perpendicular to wide band; fluorescent yellow spots between stripes on both lobes of caudal fin, sometimes vague (Figs 2C and 2D ). The preserved specimens are dorsally dark-brown; all fins retain original spots, bars, or stripes; mid-lateral sides with faint dark grey bar (Fig. 2B ).

Sequence analysis of the COI gene.

The mean sequence of some mitochondrial cytochrome C oxidase (COI) genes, collected from fish specimens examined in the presently reported study, was 690 nucleotide sites. The base frequencies of A, C, T, and G of twenty COI sequences were 22.2%, 29.4%, 29.4%, and 19.0%, respectively and the A + T content (51.6%) was greater than the C + G content (48.4%). The intraspecific genetic distance ranged from 0% to 1.58% and the interspecific genetic distance ranged from 8.87% to 19.36% (Table 3 ). The interspecific genetic distance was much greater than the intraspecific genetic distance. According to the results of the maximum likelihood tree (Fig. 4 ), Upeneus sulphureus , U. subvittatus , U. quadrilineatus , U. moluccensis , U. japonicus , and U. tragula clustered and separated from U. pori with high bootstrap values and SH-aLRT values, respectively, indicating significant differentiation amongst them, of which the sequences in this study (GOU103676, GOU103678, GOU104100, and GOU104102) were clustered with the sequences (KM538630, LC572156, KY176690, and KF564319) distinguished as U. pori in the Red Sea area from GenBank with high SH-aLRT and ultrafast bootstrap values (97/99). The genetic distance (Table 4 ) shows that the U. pori collected in the South China Sea and the U. pori from the Red Sea belong to the species range.

Figures

Figure 2. Upeneus pori, 106 mm SL, GOU 104100, (A) fresh specimen; (B) preserved specimen; (C) caudal-fin characteristics; (D) drawing of caudal-fin patterns.

Figure 3. Comparison between Upeneus pori and Upeneus tragula. (A) Upeneus pori, fresh, 114 mm SL; (B) Upeneus tragula, fresh, 216 mm SL, (C) Upeneus pori, dead, 102 mm SL, GOU 103678, this study; (D) Upeneus tragula, dead, 145.4 mm SL. Photos A and B by Randall JE (1997). Randall's tank photos. Collection of 10,000 large-format photos (slides) of dead fishes. Published in Froese and Pauly (2023). Photo D by Sahat Ratmuangkhwang; published in Froese and Pauly (2023).

Figure 4. Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic tree of Upeneus pori, based on DNA sequences of the mitochondrial COI gene (bold fonts for sequences of this study, not bold for previous research). Numbers on the branches indicate the Shimodaira-Hasegawa-like approximate likelihood ratio test (SH-aLRT) and ultrafast bootstrap support (only values above 70 % are displayed).