Upeneus Cuvier, 1829

Uiblein, Franz & Mcgrouther, Mark, 2012, A new deep-water goatfish of the genus Upeneus (Mullidae) from northern Australia and the Philippines, with a taxonomic account of U. subvittatus and remarks on U. mascareinsis, Zootaxa 3550, pp. 61-70 : 62

Genus Upeneus Cuvier, 1829

Upeneus Cuvier, 1829: 157 .

Type species Mullus vittatus (Forsskål, 1775) by subsequent designation of Desmarest (1856).

Diagnosis. Dorsal fins VII or VIII + 9; anal fin I, 6; pectoral-fin rays 12–17; principal caudal-fin rays 7 + 8 (median 13 branched); gill rakers 4–9 + 13–24 = 18–33; lateral-line scales 28–39, lateral line complete; small scales present basally on second dorsal, anal and caudal fins; small teeth present on vomer, palatines and jaws, multiserial and villiform on jaws; body oblong, slightly compressed; barbel length in adults 4–7 times in SL; snout length 7–11 times in SL, subequal to postorbital length (7–10 times in SL); in fresh fish lateral body stripes and/or caudal-fin bars of differing colours, dark caudal-fin bars frequently retained on preserved fish.

Distribution. In all major oceans, tropical to subtropical, only a single species in the Atlantic and two in the Mediterranean, both immigrants from the Red Sea (Ben Tuvia 1966).

Remarks. We recognize 30 species as valid. One single species, Upeneus filifer , and four species groups can be distinguished based on number of dorsal spines and gill rakers, length of longest dorsal-fin spine, length of pelvic and pectoral fins, and presence or absence of caudal-fin bars and mid-lateral body stripes ( Uiblein & Heemstra 2010). Here, Upeneus stenopsis n. sp. is added to the vittatus group which includes U. davidaromi Golani, 2001 (Red Sea), U. indicus Uiblein & Heemstra, 2010 (SW India), U. mascareinsis Fourmanoir & Guézé, 1967 (Mascarenes to Mozambique), U. parvus Poey, 1852 (Western Central Atlantic), U. suahelicus Uiblein & Heemstra, 2010 (Red Sea to South Africa), U. subvittatus ( Temminck & Schlegel, 1843) ( Indonesia to Japan), U. supravittatus Uiblein & Heemstra, 2010 (southern India) and U. vittatus (Forsskål, 1775) (Indopacific) . This group can be distinguished by the following combination of characteristics: oblique dark bars on both caudal-fin lobes in fresh and preserved fish, 25–33 total gill rakers, 14–17 pectoral-fin rays, and pelvic-fin length 1.1–1.5 times in pectoral fin.

The three other species groups are the japonicus group (which includes U. asymmetricus Lachner, 1954 , U. australiae Kim & Nakaya, 2002 , U. francisi Randall & Guézé, 1992 , U. guttatus (Day, 1868) , U. itoui Yamashita, Golani & Motomura, 2011 , U. japonicus (Houttuyn, 1782) , U. pori Ben-Tuvia & Golani, 1989 , and U. seychellensis Uiblein & Heemstra 2011 ), the moluccensis group ( U. doriae (Günther, 1869) , U. moluccensis (Bleeker, 1855) , U. quadrilineatus Cheng & Wang, 1963 , U. sulphureus Cuvier in Cuvier & Valenciennes, 1829), and the tragula group ( U. luzonius Jordan & Seale, 1907, U. margarethae Uiblein & Heemstra, 2010 , U. mouthami Randall & Kulbicki, 2006 , U. oligospilus Lachner, 1954 , Upeneus randalli Uiblein & Heemstra, 2011 , U. sundaicus (Bleeker, 1855) , U. taeniopterus Cuvier in Cuvier & Valenciennes, 1829, U. tragula Richardson, 1846 ).