| Family: |
Serranidae (Sea basses: groupers and fairy basslets) |
| Max. size: |
3.3 cm SL (male/unsexed) |
| Environment: |
demersal; marine; depth range 150 - 160 m |
| Distribution: |
Western Central Pacific: Papua New Guinea and Taiwan; with possible widespread occurrence in the western Pacific. |
| Diagnosis: |
Dorsal spines (total): 10-10; Dorsal soft rays (total): 10-10; Anal spines: 3-3; Anal soft rays: 6-6; Vertebrae: 24-24. This species is distinguished by the following characters: pored lateral line scales 34-37 (modally 36); scale rows between lateral line and base of 6th dorsal-fin spine 3 (two full-sized plus a dorsalmost half-sized scales); developed gill rakers 1-2 + 7-8 (modally 2 + 7); cheek scale rows 4-7 (modally 5); dentary surface of the lower jaw naked; interorbital region with a one row of cycloid scales extending to or slightly beyond the mid-orbit level; outermost row of teeth of the upper jaw are enlarged, antrorse and caniniform; outermost row of teeth of the lower jaw at the lateral side near symphysis with ca. 3-4 enlarged antrorse canines, the innermost row of teeth enlarged and caniniform; penultimate and the last dorsal- and anal-fin rays in adult are not elongated. Colouration: a red ocellus on opercular membrane between the spines; soft dorsal fin with series of large yellow spots; anal fin with a yellow margin; caudal fin with yellow spots along basal-half median fin rays; with a faint and discontinuous stripe formed by clusters of melanophores along the mid-lateral body when preserved (Ref, 127472).
Description: Along the COI gene, the following apomorphic sites have unique nucleotides shared by the two specimens of this species examined so far; these nucleotide sites can be used for separating the species from other congeners. Nos. 279 (T vs. A or G), 291 (T vs. A or G), 579 (G vs. A or C), 606 (T vs. A or G), 624 (G vs. A) (Ref. 123218). |
| Biology: |
a relatively shallow water species compare to its congeners. It was trawled
from seamount and bands at depth 150–160 m in its type locality (Lee et al., 2019). In Taiwan, it is captured by
bottom-trawl off southwestern Taiwan, the depth of the trawl operation is assumed to be rubble sandy bottom
(topology of seafloor unknown) at depth ca. 100 m, judging from others by-catch species [e.g., Neomerinthe erostris
(Alcock, 1896), Scorpaena miostoma Günther, 1877] (Ref. 127472) |
| IUCN Red List Status: |
Not Evaluated (N.E.) Ref. (130435)
|
| Threat to humans: |
harmless |
Source and more info: www.fishbase.org. For personal, classroom, and other internal use only. Not for publication.