Hirokazu Kishimoto

Validity of the gerreid fish,Gerres macracanthus Bleeker, 1854, with designation of a lectotype, and designation of a neotype forG. filamentosus Cuvier, 1829

Gerres macracanthus Bleeker, 1854, for many years having been explicitly or tentatively synonymized withG. filamentosus Cuvier, 1829, is redescribed as a valid species.Gerres macracanthus differs fromG. filamentosus in lacking vertical rows of dark ovoid spots on the body, having instead only indistinct vertical bands in both subadult and adult stages, in addition to shorter second and third anal fin spines (9.1–13.9% and 10.4–14.4% of standard length [SL] vs. 12.3–19.6% and 11.9–17.3% of SL), fewer ored lateral line scales (41–44 vs. 43–46) and fewer scales between the base of the 5th dorsal fin spine and the lateral line (4–5 vs. 4 1/2–5 1/2), and above and below the lateral line (5 1/2–6 1/2/9 1/2–10 1/2 vs. 6 1/2–7 1/2/10 1/2–11 1/2). AlthoughG. filamentosus has similarly, indistinct vertical bands on the body up to ca. 100 mm SL, specimens over ca. 100 mm SL develop diffuse ovoid spots in each vertical band. Furthermore,G. macracanthus is generally a smaller species, apparently attaining a maximum size of ca. 170 mm SL, compared with ca. 250 mm SL forG. filamentosus. Formerly known from the Philippines, Indonesia, New guinea, India and the Arabian Gulf,G. macracanthus is newly-recorded from Japan, China, the Gulf of Thailand, the Red Sea and South Africa. A lectotype and three paralectotypes are designated forG. macracanthus Bleeker, 1854, in addition to a neotype forG. filamentosus Cuvier, 1829.

Larval identification following metamorphosis in the slender brown moray Strophidon ui from the western North Pacific

Leptocephalus larvae collected from the western North Pacific, and characterized by yellow head pigmentation and many myomeres, were identified as the slender brown moray Strophidon ui following observations of metamorphosis in an aquarium. The leptocephali had 184–196 total myomeres (84–90 predorsal, 116–122 preanal) and 95–102 last vertical blood vessel myomeres. A horizontally elongate group of irregular melanophores before and behind the eye formed a poorly defined band. Some irregular melanophores on the iris encircled the pupil, and minute melanophores occurred ventrally on the spinal cord and along the dorsal and anal fin bases. Yellow pigments were present in anterior and posterior regions adjacent to the eye in fresh specimens. It was possible to clearly distinguish the leptocephali of S. ui from six unassigned leptocephalus types and Gymnothorax minor reported previously from the same region, owing to the lower total myomere counts (106–142) in the latter. This is the second description of specifically identified muraenid leptocephali from the western North Pacific.

A New Stargazer, Uranoscopus flavipinnis, from Japan and Taiwan with Redescription and Neotype Designation of U. japonicus

Uranoscopus flavipinnis sp. nov. is described based on 39 specimens from the coasts of southern Japan and Taiwan. It differs from otherUranoscopus species in having the following combination of external characters: posterior nasal valve tubular, as long as anterior one; nape naked between the lateral lines; body reddish brown with irregular yellow spots. Previously,U. flavipinnis was wrongly identified asU. japonicus Houttuyn, 1782 (=U. asper Temminck et Schlegel, 1843). This new species occurs from the South China Sea northward to Ibaraki and Niigata Prefectures, Japan. Since the type specimen ofU. japonicus has been lost, one of the present specimens, HUMZ 109237, is designated as the neotype ofU. japonicus to stabilize the nomenclature.Uranoscopus japonicus is redescribed and compared withU. flavipinnis.

A long-finned variant of the Japanese sea bass Lateolabrax japonicus from Enshu-nada, Japan

Recently, an unusual sea bass specimen, with all fin rays being extremely long (Fig. 1), was collected from Enshu-nada waters, central Japan. From its general features, the specimen was considered to belong to the genus Lateolabrax, presently known from three species, including the Japanese sea bass, Lateolabrax japonicus, spotted sea bass, Lateolabrax maculatus (sensu Kim et al. 2001; Liu et al. 2006), and flat sea bass, Lateolabrax latus. This study aimed to identify the longfinned specimen on the basis of morphological and genetic comparisons with the above Lateolabrax species. The long-finned specimen was collected by trawl in waters off the Tenryu River estuary (34 3804000N, 137 4704000E) on 23 March 2010. Following 3 days storage in ice water, the specimen was frozen at -20 C, before subsequent thawing and removal of the liver and muscle tissues for isozyme analysis. The specimen was then fixed in 10% formalin and deposited in Shizuoka Prefecture Nature Learning Resources Center (catalogue no. SPMN-h 40001). Morphological and genetic examination methods followed Yokogawa and Seki (1995). However, the pectoral scaly area length (PSAL), as defined by Yokogawa and Seki (1995), is given as a proportion of standard length as opposed to pectoral fin length, since the latter was extremely long in the present specimen (Fig. 1). Measurement data for L. japonicus and L. maculatus were based on Yokogawa and Seki (1995), and for L. latus, obtained from 11 specimens deposited in the Laboratory of Marine Biology, Faculty of Science, Kochi University (BSKU 100553, 100554, 100556–100561, 101826 and 101835) and the Tokushima Prefectural Museum (TKPM-P 00972), all from the Seto Inland Sea, Japan. Further, for osteological comparisons, the long-finned specimen was radiographed together with L. japonicus specimens (TKPM-P 00352, a sample lot) from the Seto Inland Sea. For isozyme analyses, control samples utilizing frozen preserved tissues from 7 L. japonicus (SPMN-h 40002– 40008, from Lake Hamana, Japan), 4 L. maculatus (BSKU 100540, 100542, 100545, 100551, from Mokpo, Korea) and 4 L. latus (BSKU 100554, 100556, 100557, 101826) were used for mobility comparisons with electrophoretogram bands from the long-finned specimen. Allelic frequency data for the former three species were also taken from Yokogawa (1998). Isozymic loci definitions generally followed Yokogawa (1998), with some modifications in Yokogawa (2004) (viz. GAPDH-1* and GAPDH-2* loci renamed G3PDH-1* and G3PDH-2*, respectively; LDH-1* locus newly added, the LDH* locus being renamed as LDH-2*; PROT-2* locus reidentified as CK* and PROT-3* locus renamed as PROT-2*). Genetic relatedness between individuals (Rxy) of three Lateolabrax species (data based on Yokogawa 1998) and the long-finned specimen was calculated following Queller and Goodnight (1989), and it was converted into distance between individuals (D) following Noguchi et al. (2003) (D = 1 Rxy). Subsequently, a dendrogram was constructed from the D values by using the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) with the MEGA software created by Tamura et al. (2007). Morphological characters. Morphological measurements clearly demonstrated that the proportional lengths of K. Yokogawa (&) 13-5 Higashihama, Tadotsu-cho, Nakatado-gun, Kagawa 764-0016, Japan e-mail: gargariscus@ybb.ne.jp

Selenoscopus turbisquamatus, a New Genus and Species of Uranoscopid Fish from Japan and the Norfolk Ridge

A new stargazer,Selenoscopus turbisquamatus, is described from 30 specimens from the Kyushu-Palau Ridge, the coasts of Kii Peninsula, Japan, and the Norfolk Ridge, northern Tasman Sea. The species appears to be most closely related to the genusUranoscopus in having two dorsal fins, a spinous dorsal fin consisting of feeble spines, a stout cleithral spine, an externally visible pelvic spur, two supracleithral spines, and no postcleithrum, but differs from it in having a smooth posterior margin of the gill flap, uniserial dentary teeth, random arrangement of body scales, no subopercular spine, an intervention of the pterosphenoid (=alisphenoid) between the frontal and the parasphenoid, and the first and second haemal spines depressed on the centra. A new genus,Selenoscopus, is therefore proposed, based on these characters.

Revision of a deep-sea stargazer genus Pleuroscopus

The monotypic uranoscopid genusPleuroscopus Barnard, 1927, originally based on a description of the subadult holotype, is redescribed to include the adult form, which has been considered by some recent authors to be a separate species. An examination of additional material ofP. pseudodorsalis from southern Africa and Australasia (242–559 mm SL) has revealed the presence of two distinct post-juvenile growth forms, with a belated transition stage between them at about 270–365 mm SL. Subadults display allometric growth and have greater rugosity and ornamentation of head bones and scales than adults. During the transformation period, growth becomes linear, scales become less obvious and their surfaces less ornamented, and prominent bony ridges of the head exfoliate.

Transfer ofCentropyge multispinis (Teleostei; Pomacanthidae) from subgenusXiphypops to subgenusCentropyge

The angelfish,Centropyge multispinis, hitherto assigned to the subgenusXiphypops Jordan, 1922 is transferred to the subgenusCentropyge Kaup, 1860, on the basis of anatomical characters. Comparison of adult specimens ofC. (C.) multispinis with 5 other species,C. (C.) nox, C. (C.) eibli, C. (X.) shepardi, C. (X.) flavicauda, andC. (X.) acanthops, confirmed its subgeneric status.