Upeneus mouthami Randall & Kulbicki, 2006

Uiblein, Franz, Gledhill, Daniel C., Pavlov, Dimitri A., Hoang, Tuan Anh & Shaheen, Shaker, 2019, Three new goatfishes of the genus Upeneus (Mullidae) from the Indo-Pacific, with a redescription of colour patterns in U. margarethae, Zootaxa 4683 (2), pp. 151-196 : 185-188

Upeneus mouthami Randall & Kulbicki, 2006

Mou Tham’s goatfish

( Figures 1 , 7 , 12 ; Tables 2, 5, 6, 9)

Upeneus mouthami Randall & Kulbicki, 2006 . Type locality Chesterfield Bank, Coral Sea, New Caledonia, Chesterfield Islands.

Holotype. (only fresh-colour photo examined). BPBM 33858 , adult, 70 mm SL, Coral Sea , New Caledonia, Chesterfield Islands , Chesterfield Bank, 20°59’48’’ S, 158°47’18’’ E, RV Alis, beam trawl, 71 m depth.

Paratypes. (4 adults: 73–94 mm SL). Coral Sea , New Caledonia, Chesterfield Islands : BPBM 33855 , 94 mm SL, Chesterfield Bank, 20°51’0’’ S, 158°45’00’’ E , RV Alis, shrimp trawl, 71 m depth ; BPBM 39467 , 88 mm SL, Chesterfield Bank, Bellona Reefs, 21°24’54’’ S, 159°09’18’’ E , RV Coriolis, beam trawl, 60 m depth ; MNHN 2004- 1571 , 73 mm SL, and USNM 378143 , 81 mm SL, Chesterfield Bank, north side, 19°12’23’’ S, 158°42’02’’ E , RV Coriolis, beam trawl, 68 m depth .

Non-types. (4 subadults: 46–55 mm SL, 2 fresh-colour photos): Vanuatu, NO Alis, chalut à perche: MNHN

2008-1459, 46 mm SL, Espirito Santo Island, 15°31.68′S, 167°10.80′E, 36–43 m depth (fresh-colour photo); MNHN 2010-0616 , 51 mm SL , NW Malo Island , 15°39.90′S, 167°03.78′E, 114–132 m depth ; MNHN 2019-0026 , 1 of 3, 55 mm SL, 15°37.98′S, 167°03′E, 140–175 m depth (wrongly referred to as MNHN 2002-0070 in Uiblein et al. 2016) ; MNHN 2019-0027 , 1 of 4, 49 mm SL, Malo Island , Bruat Channel, 15°37.32′S, 167°09.60′E, 52–66 m depth (fresh-colour photo).

Diagnosis. Dorsal fins VIII + 9, the first spine minute; pectoral fins 12–13; gill rakers 6–7 + 17–18 = 23–25; lateral-line scales 29–30; measurements in % SL, adults: body depth at first dorsal-fin origin 21–24; body depth at anus 19–21; caudal-peduncle depth 9.1–10; caudal-peduncle width 3.2–3.9; maximum head depth 20–21; head depth through eye 17–18; suborbital depth 9.0–11; interorbital length 7.6–8.1; head length 29–30; snout length 11–12; postorbital length 11–12; orbit length 7.8–8.8; upper-jaw length 9.3–11; barbel length 20–22; interdorsal distance 12–16; caudal-peduncle length 21–24; caudal-fin length 27–29; anal-fin height 17–19; pelvic-fin length 22–23; pectoral-fin length 22–23; pectoral-fin width 4.0–4.3; first dorsal-fin height 20–21; second dorsal-fin height 17–19; measurements in % SL, subadults: body depth at first dorsal-fin origin 21–23; body depth at anus 18–20; caudal-peduncle depth 9.1–10; caudal-peduncle width 3.0–3.5; maximum head depth 19–21; head depth through eye 15–16; suborbital depth 7.5–9.2; interorbital length 7.0–7.6; head length 30–32; snout length 10–12; postorbital length 11–13; orbit length 8.4–9.1; upper-jaw length 9.7–12; barbel length 21–23; interdorsal distance 13–14; caudal-peduncle length 23–26; caudal-fin length 30–31; anal-fin height 16–17; pelvic-fin length 22–23; pectoral-fin length 21–22; pectoral-fin width 3.5–3.8; first dorsal-fin height 19–22; second dorsal-fin height 19–20; fresh colour: head and body dorsally orange red or grey mottled, ventrally white rose or silvery, in adults covered with red blotches along ventral margin; caudal fin with 6 dark brown or black oblique bars on both lobes; on upper caudalfin lobe 3 dark brown bars, on lower lobe 3 black bars, in adults the distal-most bar twice as wide as other bars; on both lobes hyaline interspaces mostly larger than bars; mid-laterally on caudal-fin base a brown spot both in adults and subadults; barbels yellow; a single yellow mid-lateral body stripe of pupil width from behind head to caudal peduncle; no dark dots on stripe, dark saddle behind second dorsal fin lacking or only weakly expressed; first dorsal fin with pale green pigmentation, tip pale white, often with closely fused pale-red or pale-grey brown stripes; second dorsal fin with up to 3 brown-red or grey stripes with whitish hyaline interspaces; preserved fish pale, mid-lateral stripe completely lost, yellow barbel colour sometimes retained ( Figure 7 G ), with remains of dark pigmentation deriving from caudal-fin bars and second dorsal-fin distal stripe or, more rarely, from saddle.

Distribution, habitat and size. Coral Sea, New Caledonia, Chesterfield Islands and Vanuatu off Malo and Spiritu Santo Islands; 36–175 m depth, muddy bottoms, adults occur shallower than juveniles; maximum size 9.5 cm SL.

Intraspecific comparisons. Subadults differ from adults in shallower head, narrower snout, slightly longer caudal peduncle and first dorsal-fin base, longer caudal fin and narrower pectoral fins ( Tables 2, 9).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Map showing the distribution of the six species of the margarethae group. Three populations of Upeneus margarethae are indicated by different symbols. Numbers indicate multiple sampling localities.

FIGURE 12. Three morphometric characters against SL and pelvic-fin length against barbel length in adults of Upeneus heterospinus n. sp., U. mouthami and U. spottocaudalis. For Upeneus heterospinus n. sp., the three populations and additional specimens from other areas are indicated by different symbols. The distinction among U. heterospinus n. sp. and the two other species is indicated by dotted, continuous, and dashed outlines, respectively. The data for the specimen from S Japan identified here as U. heterospinus n. sp. were taken from Bandai et al. (2018). The data for U. spottocaudalis are from Uiblein et al. (2017).

FIGURE7. (A–C) Upeneus caudofasciatus n. sp.; (A) HT, CSIRO H 6717-02, 116 mm SL, NE Australia, Great Barrier Reef, N of Rockingham Bay (D.C. Gledhill); (B) PT, CSIRO H 7212-01, 95 mm SL, same region, SE of Cairns (D.C. Gledhill); (C) CSIRO H 3637-10, 69 mm SL, Torres Strait W of Thursday Island, (G. Yearsley); (D) U. gubal n. sp., 87 mm SL, Red Sea, S Gulf Of Suez (F. Uiblein); (E–G) U. mouthami; (E) HT, BPBM 33858, 70 mm SL, Chesterfield Bank, Coral Sea (J.E. Randall); (F) MNHN 2008-1433, 49 mm SL, Vanuatu, off Malo Island, Bruat Channel (C. Ferrara); (G) same specimen preserved (F. Uiblein).