Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Type: Article
Published: 2017-05-24
Page range: 559–570
Abstract views: 59
PDF downloaded: 1

Two new species of Trimma (Pisces; Gobiidae) from Fiji, south-western Pacific Ocean

Curator Emeritus, Department of Natural History, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ont., Canada M5S 2C6 Professor Emeritus, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont., Canada M5S 1A1
taxonomy Western Pacific coral reef gobies COI gene Pisces

Abstract

Two new species of Trimma are described from Fiji. Trimma bathum n. sp. lacks scales on the cheeks, opercle and predorsal midline, has 18–19 unbranched pectoral fin rays, an unbranched 5th pelvic fin ray that is 40–56% the length of the 4th ray, 17–18 gill rakers on the outer surface of the first gill arch, a U-shaped interorbital and a narrow slit-like postorbital trench, a low, median fleshy ridge extending half-way towards the orbit from the origin of the first dorsal fin, and, when freshly collected, a pink head and body with most body scales having an orange-brown spot or short bar at their centres. The species is currently known only from off Suva Harbour, Viti Levu, Fiji. Trimma finistrinum n. sp. has a bony interorbital equal to the pupil diameter, a fully scaled nape of 12–14 scales, a second dorsal spine that may reach posteriorly to the middle of the second dorsal fin, the papillae in the longitudinal row immediately below the eye either single or with two papillae in a vertical row, unbranched pectoral fin rays, usually a branched fifth pelvic-fin ray that is about half length of the fourth ray, and a large diffuse dark blotch on the posterior part of the caudal peduncle. A colour pattern of a brownish body with most body scales having golden- to greenish-yellow (pale in preservative) centres is unique among species of the genus. The species is currently recorded only from off the north and east coasts of Viti Levu, Fiji.

References

  1. Cohen, D.M. & Davis, W.P. (1969) Vertical orientation in a new gobiid fish from New Britain. Pacific Science, 23, 317–324.

    Jordan, D.S. & Seale, A. (1906) The fishes of Samoa. Description of the species found in the archipelago, with a provisional check-list of the fishes of Oceania. Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries, 25 (for 1905), 173–455, index 457 ̶ 488, pls. 33 ̶ 53.

    Suzuki, T., Yano, K. & Senou, H. (2015) Trimma yoshinoi, a new gobiid fish from Japan (Perciformes: Gobiidae). Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation, 14, 66–73.

    Tomiyama, I. (1936) Gobiidae of Japan. Japanese Journal of Zoology, 7, 37–112.

    Winterbottom, R. (1984) A review of the gobiid fish genus Trimma from the Chagos Archipelago, Central Indian Ocean, with the description of seven new species. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 62, 695–715.
    https://doi.org/10.1139/z84-101

    Winterbottom, R. (2000) Four new species of Trimma (Gobiidae), from the Indian and western Pacific oceans. aqua, Journal of Ichthyology and aquatic Biology, 4 (2), 57–66.

    Winterbottom, R. (2001) Two new gobiid fish species in Trimma and Trimmatom (Teleostei: Gobiidae) from the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans. aqua, Journal of Ichthyology and aquatic Biology, 5 (1), 19–24.

    Winterbottom, R. (2004) Three new species of Trimma (Pisces; Gobiidae) from the central, western and south Pacific. aqua, Journal of Ichthyology and aquatic Biology, 9 (1), 7–16.

    Winterbottom, R. (2005) Two new species of the Trimma tevegae species group from the western Pacific (Percomorpha; Gobiidae). aqua, International Journal of Ichthyology, 10 (1), 51–56.

    Winterbottom, R. (2011) Six new species of the genus Trimma (Percomorpha; Gobiidae) from the Raja Ampat Islands, Indonesia. aqua, International Journal of Ichthyology, 17 (3), 127–162.

    Winterbottom, R. (2016) Trimma tevegae and T. caudomaculatum revisited and redescribed (Acanthopterygii, Gobiidae), with descriptions of three new similar species from the western Pacific. Zootaxa, 4144 (1), 1–53.
    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4144.1.1

    Winterbottom, R., Erdmann, M.V. & Cahyani, N.K D. (2015) New species of Trimma (Actinopterygii, Gobiidae) from Indonesia, with comments on head papillae nomenclature. Zootaxa, 3973 (2), 201–226.
    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3973.2.1

    Winterbottom, R., Hanner, R.H., Burridge, M. & Zur, M. (2014) A cornucopia of cryptic species — a DNA barcode analysis of the gobiid fish genus Trimma (Percomorpha, Gobiiformes). ZooKeys, 381, 79–111.
    https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.381.6445

    Winterbottom, R. & Southcott, L. (2007) Two new species of the genus Trimma from western Thailand. aqua, Journal of Ichthyology and aquatic Biology, 13 (2), 69–76.

    Yoshino, T. & Arai, C. (1975) Trimma caudomaculata Yoshino and Araga. In: Masuda, H., Araga, C. & Yoshino, T. (Eds.), Coastal Fishes of Southern Japan. Tokai University Press, Tokyo, pp. 272.