Journal of the
Ocean Science Foundation

An open-access free online peer-reviewed Marine Biology Journal, since 2008.

published by the Ocean Science Foundation

 
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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Two new species in the spike-fin fairy-wrasse species complex (Teleostei: Labridae: Cirrhilabrus) from the Indian Ocean

Benjamin C. Victor

Abstract

The western and central Indian Ocean population of the fairy wrasse, Cirrhilabrus rubriventralis, is here split into three allopatric species: the type species from the Red Sea; C. rubeus n. sp., a new central Indian Ocean species from Sri Lanka and the Maldives; and C. africanus n. sp., a new east African coastal species. The three species are mainly differentiated by the color patterns of terminal-phase (TP) males. The two new species diverge from C. rubriventralis in the sequence of the barcode-mtDNA COI marker by 2.6% and 0.5%, respectively (pairwise distance; 2.7% and 0.5% K2P distance). The Indian Ocean species complex made up of the 8 spike-fin species allied with C. rubriventralis is now one of the larger species complexes among labrid reef fishes, showing an interesting pattern of allopatric sibling species dividing up the region, as well as the occurrence of localized microendemic species in Indonesia and the Timor Sea. The species complex includes some species that share mtDNA lineages (phenovariant species), as well as others up to 2.9% divergent in sequence. A neighbor-joining tree and genetic distance matrix is presented for 7 of the 8 known species in the complex.

 

     

CITATION:

Victor, B.C. (2016) Two new species in the spike-fin fairy-wrasse species complex (Teleostei: Labridae: Cirrhilabrus) from the Indian Ocean. Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation, 23, 21-50.

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.163217

publication date: 25 October 2016