Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 1425 No. 1: 15 Mar. 2007
Type: Articles
Published: 2007-03-15
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.1425.1.6
Page range: 45–51
Abstract views: 46
PDF downloaded: 2

Two new species of Elacatinus (Teleostei: Gobiidae) from the Mexican coast of the Gulf of Mexico

Dept. of Biology, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, Missouri 63701, USA
Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF), P.O. Box 246, Key Largo, Florida, 33037, USA
Pisces Gulf of Mexico Atlantic Ocean reef fish new species goby

Abstract

Two new species of gobies (Teleostei: Gobiidae) were recently discovered off the coast of Veracruz, Mexico in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. Elacatinus jarocho sp. nov. can be diagnosed from other species in the genus by the disjunct yellow lateral stripe restricted to the head and caudal fin base, the yellow medial stripe on the snout, and the black ovoid to rectangular spot at the base of the caudal fin, immediately ventral to the yellow dash. This species forms shoals in the water column close to rock and coral reefs, feeding presumably on zooplankton, a trait shared by only one other species in the genus. Elacatinus redimiculus sp. nov. can be diagnosed from other species in the genus by the distinct reddish orange blotches or broken bands on the head and 13 reddish orange to dark brown stripes between the pectoral and caudal fins. Both species are currently known only from the southwestern Gulf of Mexico from reefs within the Veracruz Marine Park off the coast of Veracruz, Mexico.

References

  1. Böhlke, J.E., Robins, C.R. (1968) Western Atlantic seven-spined gobies, with descriptions of ten new species and a new genus, and comments on Pacific relatives. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 120, 45–174.

    Colin, P.L. (1975) Neon gobies T.F.H. Publications, Inc., Neptune City, N.J.

    Colin, P.L. (2002) A new species of sponge-dwelling Elacatinus (Pisces: Gobiidae) from the western Caribbean. Zootaxa, 106, 1–7.

    Eschmeyer, W.N. (1998) Catalog of fishes. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, 3 vols, 2905 pp.

    Guimarães, R.Z.P., Gasparini, J.L., Rocha, L.A. (2004) A new cleaner goby of the genus Elacatinus (Teleostei: Gobiidae), from Trindade Island, off Brazil. Zootaxa, 770, 1–8.

    Hoese, D.F. (1971) A revision of the eastern Pacific species of the gobiid fish genus Gobiosoma, with a discussion of relationships of the genus, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, 213 pp.

    Hoese, D.F., Reader, S. (2001) A preliminary review of the eastern Pacific species of Elacatinus (Perciformes : Gobiidae). Revista De Biologia Tropical, 49, 157–167.

    Leviton, A.E., Gibbs, R.H. Jr., Heal, E, Dawson, C.E. (1985) Standards in herpetology and ichthyology. Part I. Standard symbolic codes for institutional resource collections in herpetology and ichthyology. Copeia, 1985, 802–832.

    Nelson, J.S. (1994) Fishes of the world, 3rd ed. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 600 pp.

    Robertson, D.R. (1998) Do coral-reef fish faunas have a distinctive taxonomic structure? Coral Reefs, 17, 179–186.

    Robins, C.R. (1958) Garmannia zebrella, a new gobiid fish from Trinidad, with notes on the species of the subgenus Tigrigobius Fowler. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, 48, 192–198.

    Sazima, I., Moura, R.L., Rosa, R.S. (1997) Elacatinus figaro sp. n. (Perciformes: Gobiidae), a new cleaner goby from the coast of Brazil. Aqua, Journal of Ichthyology and Aquatic Biology, 2, 33–38.