RESEARCH ARTICLE
Lutjanus xanthopinnis,
a new species of snapper (Pisces: Lutjanidae) from
the Indo-west Pacific, with a redescription of Lutjanus
madras (Valenciennes 1831)
Yukio Iwatsuki, Fumiya Tanaka,
& Gerald R. Allen
Abstract
A new species of snapper
of the genus Lutjanus is described from the
Indo-western Pacific region, and the related species
with which it frequently has been confused, Lutjanus
madras (Valenciennes 1831), is redescribed.
Lutjanus xanthopinnis n. sp. is described from
11 specimens, 56–192 mm SL, from Kagoshima in southern
Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka. It differs
from L. madras in meristics, color, and squamation
of the preopercular flange. The new species is distinguished
by several embedded scales on the preopercular flange,
4 or 5 scale rows on the cheek, and mostly uniform
thin yellow to brownish stripes on the body on adults,
missing the well-contrasted and much broader mid-lateral
stripe characteristic of L. madras. In contrast,
L. madras lacks scales on the preopercular flange,
has 7 or 8 scale rows on the cheek, and has a broad
(up to pupil diameter), wellcontrasted yellow to brownish
stripe along the lateral midline. Comparison of the
barcode mitochondrial COI genetic marker reveals a
6.4% minimum interspecific divergence (uncorrected
pairwise) between the two species. We also conclude
that L. madras, formerly considered to be widely
distributed in the Indo-western Pacific region, is
actually restricted to the Indian Ocean (Zanzibar,
Seychelles, Oman, Sri Lanka, and southern India),
with the two species apparently sympatric in Sri Lanka.
The yellow-lined snapper complex of the Indo-Pacific
is clarified, including morphological and marking
differences, genetic relationships, and species distributions.
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CITATION:
Iwatsuki, Y., Tanaka, F.
& Allen, G.R. (2015) Lutjanus xanthopinnis,
a new species of snapper (Pisces: Lutjanidae) from
the Indo-west Pacific, with a redescription of Lutjanus
madras (Valenciennes 1831). Journal of the
Ocean Science Foundation, 17, 22-42.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1051774
publication date: 7 December
2015
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