Ctenogobiops crocineus Smith, 1959

Bogorodsky, Marcelo Kovačić Sergey V. & Randall, John E., 2011, Redescription of the Red Sea gobiid fish Ctenogobiops maculosus (Fourmanoir) and validation of C. crocineus Smith, Zootaxa 3054, pp. 60-68 : 65-67

Ctenogobiops crocineus Smith, 1959

( Figs. 4 and 5 )

Ctenogobiops crocineus Smith, 1959: 191 , pl. 11 K ( Mahé, Seychelles).

Material examined. HUJ 10824, female, 42.2+ 12.7 mm, Red Sea, El Hamira, Gulf of Aqaba, 27 September 1974; BPBM 27441, female, 45.4+ 12.7 mm, Red Sea, Sudan, Towartit Reef, 13 January 1980; BPBM 32953, female, 39.4+ 11.1 mm, Republic of Maldives, South Malé Atoll, 18 March 1988; BPBM 33059, female, 45.5+ 14.3 mm., North Malé Atoll, 24 March 1988.

Diagnosis. Dorsal rays VI + I,11–12; anal rays I,11; pectoral rays 19; longitudinal scale series 55–60; body depth 4.8–5.2 in SL; head length 3.1–3.3 in SL; dorsal profile of snout forming an angle of about 40° to horizontal axis of head and body; gill opening wide, reaching forward nearly to a vertical at posterior edge of eye; second dorsal spine equal to or slightly longer than first spine and longer than the third spine, and about equal to the body depth (0.9–1.1); caudal fin rounded, 1.1–1.3 in head length; body with four longitudinal rows of dark brown spots, the first and third as thick dashes, the spots of second row much smaller, except large first one over upper end of gill opening; fourth row ventrally on body with two or three spots on abdomen approaching pupil size, the remaining spots only dark flecks; postorbital head with three oblique rows of dark dashes at an angle less than 45°, the first a single long dash behind eye, the next two across cheek, ending on upper half of opercle; four oblique rows of dark brown dashes and dots from eye across lips; no median, dark brown, V-shaped mark dorsally on snout; no small yellow flecks ventrally on body in life; larger dark spots on ventral half of body often encircled with blue dots; pectoral fins with a small white dash at upper base, a long white streak from base, narrowing into middle of fin.

Remarks. Lieske & Myers (2004) published an underwater photograph of Ctenogobiops crocineus in the Red Sea at Marsa Shagra, Egypt, misidentified as C. maculosus .

The third author’s underwater photographs of C. crocineus in the Red Sea were taken in the Gulf of Aqaba off Eilat, off Port Sudan, and one labelled as southern Red Sea. Arthur Anker was asked if he could identify the snapping shrimp of Figure 4 A. He replied, probably Alpheus rapax or A. rapacida .

In addition to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean records given above by Polunin & Lubbock, we confirm those from the Chagos Archipelgo ( Winterbottom & Emery, 1986) and the Maldives ( Randall & Goren, 1993). Specimens from the Maldives were collected in 20– 22 m. The last paper mentions an underwater photo taken by the senior author off Kenya. He also took an underwater photo in the lagoon at Alphonse Atoll, Amirante Islands, Seychelles at a depth of 4 m. Shibukawa in Kimura et al. (2009) illustrated a 41-mm preserved specimen (photo by U. Satapoomin) from the Andaman Sea coast of Thailand. The habitat was described as protected bays in sand or sandy mud bottoms, with coral rubble, in symbiotic association with alpheid shrimps. Allen (2009) illustrated C. crocineus from an underwater photo taken at Brunei (misidentified as C. maculosus ). The third author has underwater photographs of this species in Indonesia from the Seribu Islands (north of Java), Sulawesi, Ambon, Wetar, and Pantar. Allen (1993) included C. crocineus in a checklist of the fishes of Ashmore Reef and Cartier Island off northwestern Australia.

In the Pacific, we have records only from the Great Barrier Reef (Lubbock & Polunin, 1977; Randall et al., 1994), the Ryukyu Islands ( Masuda & Kobayashi, 1994; Okamura & Amaoka, 1997; Senou et al. 2004), and Fiji ( Thacker et al., 2010). The record from Fiji is the first for an island of Oceania. Table 1 of Thacker et al. gives the only information for this record, “Gill opening large; pectoral streak white”, exactly the same as given for C. maculosus in the same table. Correspondence with Christine Thacker has confirmed her and coauthors’ record for Fiji.

Figures

FIGURE 4. Ctenogobiops crocineus, HUJ 10824, female, 42.2 + 12.7 mm, Red Sea, El Hamira, Gulf of Aqaba, 27 September 1974 (M. Kovačić).

FIGURE 5. Ctenogobiops crocineus, underwater photographs, A: Port Sudan (J. E. Randall). B: Mangrove Bay, El Quseir, Egypt (S. V. Bogorodsky).