Uiblein Franz, Nielsen JØrgen G
Institute of Marine Research, P.O. Box 1870 Nordnes, N-5817 Bergen, Norway. Corresponding author. South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, Grahamstown, South Africa Vietnam National Museum of Nature, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Zootaxa. 2018 Feb 26;4387(1):157-173. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.4387.1.7.
This review was motivated by the recent collection of a specimen of the specious cuskeel genus Neobythites (Ophidiidae) off Myanmar and difficulties to identify it based on the available literature. This specimen has an ocellus consisting of a dark oval spot and a concentric white ring placed on the dorsal fin at mid-body, typical for many Neobythites species. It belongs to a group of single-ocellus bearing species which have no or only one weakly developed, flat preopercular spine which we term here the "steatiticus-species group". Before this study, the steatiticus group consisted of six Indo-Pacific species, N. longipes, N. malhaensis, N. malayanus, N. meteori, N. steatiticus, and N. stefanovi, and the Atlantic N. monocellatus. From 136 specimens representing the six Indo-Pacific steatiticus-group species counts or measurements of 12 meristic, 14 body shape, five ocellus and six otolith characters were obtained and compared, revealing two undescribed species. We describe N. gloriae n. sp. from the Arabian Gulf and inner Gulf of Oman based on nine specimens that had been previously misidentified as N. steatiticus and N. stefanovi. The latter species differ from the new species and from each other in the combination of five characters, head length, orbit length, gill-filament length, ocellus-spot distance, and ocellus-spot size. The second new species described is N. lombokensis n. sp. which consists of a single specimen from off SE Lombok, southern Indonesia. It differs from all other steatiticus-group species in having a larger ocellus spot and in several meristic and morphometric characters. The specimen from off Myanmar, eastern Bay of Bengal, was found to belong to N. steatiticus, providing new information on distribution and colour. Diagnoses, updated distribution information, and a key for the eight Indo-Pacific steatiticus-group species are here presented. We discuss our findings with special emphasis on the variation and possible function of colour patterns in Neobythites, being important for understanding the ecology and evolution of this specious genus.
本次综述的起因是最近在缅甸沿海采集到了似深海鼬鱼属（Neobythites，鼬鳚科）的一个标本，且根据现有文献难以对其进行鉴定。该标本有一个眼状斑，由位于身体中部背鳍上的一个深色椭圆形斑点和一个同心白色环组成，这是许多似深海鼬鱼属物种的典型特征。它属于一组具有单眼状斑的物种，这些物种没有或只有一个发育较弱的扁平眶前棘，我们在此将其称为“steatiticus物种组”。在本研究之前，steatiticus组由六个印度 - 太平洋物种组成，即长鳍似深海鼬鱼（N. longipes）、马尔哈似深海鼬鱼（N. malhaensis）、马来似深海鼬鱼（N. malayanus）、流星似深海鼬鱼（N. meteori）、斯氏似深海鼬鱼（N. steatiticus）和斯特氏似深海鼬鱼（N. stefanovi），以及大西洋的单眼似深海鼬鱼（N. monocellatus）。从代表六个印度 - 太平洋steatiticus组物种的136个标本中，获取并比较了12个可数、14个身体形态、5个眼状斑和6个耳石特征的计数或测量数据，发现了两个未描述的物种。我们基于9个先前被误鉴定为斯氏似深海鼬鱼和斯特氏似深海鼬鱼的标本，描述了来自阿拉伯湾和阿曼湾内湾的格洛丽亚似深海鼬鱼（N. gloriae）新物种。后两个物种在头部长度、眼径长度、鳃丝长度、眼状斑距离和眼状斑大小这五个特征的组合上与新物种以及彼此之间存在差异。描述的第二个新物种是龙目似深海鼬鱼（N. lombokensis）新物种，它仅由来自印度尼西亚南部龙目岛东南部沿海的一个标本组成。它与所有其他steatiticus组物种的不同之处在于具有更大的眼状斑以及一些可数和形态测量特征。发现来自孟加拉湾东部缅甸沿海的标本属于斯氏似深海鼬鱼，这为分布和颜色提供了新信息。本文给出了八个印度 - 太平洋steatiticus组物种的诊断、更新后的分布信息和检索表。我们讨论了我们的发现，特别强调了似深海鼬鱼属颜色模式的变化及其可能的功能，这对于理解这个似是而非的属的生态学和进化很重要。
