RESEARCH ARTICLE
Review of the Chrysiptera
oxycephala complex of damselfishes (Pomacentridae)
with descriptions of three new species from the East
Indian Archipelago
Gerald R. Allen, Mark V.
Erdmann, & N.K. Dita Cahyani
Abstract
The nominal species Chrysiptera
oxycephala has been considered a widespread species
in the East Indian Archipelago, but genetic analyses
and a closer examination of populations throughout
the region now show it to be another example of a
species complex of closely related parapatric cryptic
species and genovariant populations. Three DNA lineages
correlate with different color patterns and are described
here as new species, including Chrysiptera ellenae
(Raja Ampat, West Papua, Indonesia), Chrysiptera
maurineae (Cenderawasih Bay, West Papua, Indonesia),
and Chrysiptera papuensis (northeastern Papua
New Guinea). The original C. oxycephala has
the widest distribution, including central Indonesia,
Sabah, Philippines, and Palau, as well as a local
population in Sulawesi with a divergent mtDNA lineage,
but no apparent phenotypic difference (Lembeh genovariant).
An additional previously described species, C.
sinclairi, is restricted to oceanic insular areas
of northeastern Papua New Guinea. The five members
of the species complex share most meristic and morphometric
features, although some differences are evident in
the modes and range of fin-ray counts and the number
of scales (combined) on the preorbital and suborbital
bones. Nevertheless, color patterns, especially those
of small juveniles, distinguish five species, i.e.
small juveniles entirely light blue (not persisting
into adulthood) in C. ellenae; blue with a
dark streak on each scale (and pattern persisting
into adulthood) in C. sinclairi; light blue
anterodorsally and yellow posteroventrally with a
blue streak on upper caudal peduncle in C. maurineae;
and light blue anterodorsally and yellow posteroventrally
but no blue streak on upper edge of caudal peduncle
in C. papuensis and C. oxycephala, but
the former has the bicolor pattern with a bright yellow
tail persisting into adulthood. The geographic distribution
corresponds directly with color-pattern differences
and mitochondrial-DNA lineages. The divergence in
the control-region mtDNA sequence between the five
species in the complex ranges from 2.9-10.9%, with
the closest relationship between the species pair
of C. maurineae and C. sinclairi, who
nevertheless have very different color patterns and
also differ in meristics. The two mtDNA lineages within
C. oxycephala diverge by 3%, greater than the
difference between C. maurineae and C. sinclairi.
These results indicate that genotypic divergence does
not necessarily correlate well with phenotypic divergence
within cryptic-species complexes of reef fishes.
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CITATION:
Allen, G.R., Erdmann, M.V.
& Cahyani, N.K.D. (2015) Review of the Chrysiptera
oxycephala complex of damselfishes (Pomacentridae)
with descriptions of three new species from the East
Indian Archipelago. Journal of the Ocean Science
Foundation, 17, 56-84.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.891435
publication date: 21 December
2015
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