Anthias duplicidentatus, Miranda Ribeiro, 1903

Carvalho-Filho, Alfredo, L. Ferreira, Carlos E. & Craig, Matthew, 2009, A shallow water population of Pronotogrammus martinicensis (Guichenot, 1868) (Teleostei: Serranidae: Anthiinae) from South-western Atlantic, Brazil, Zootaxa 2228 (1), pp. 29-42 : 38-39

Miranda-Ribeiro´s Anthias duplicidentatus :

When we started to work with the shallow-water population, our first impression was that it could be an undescribed species, but the color and the apparently much smaller eye lead us to conclude that we were dealing with Miranda-Ribeiro´s Anthias duplicidentatus ( FIG. 8 ). This species was described from the same locality where we first photographed the shallow-water morph (Ilha Rasa, Rio de Janeiro) and even though the data are scarce and the holotype missing, the picture of it in Miranda-Ribeiro´s work is remarkably similar to ours´. Years ago, Anthias duplicidentatus was placed in the synonymy of P. martinicensis by Anderson & Heemstra (1980), because:

1. Of the absence of a type to examine, Miranda-Ribeiro’s holotype was apparently lost. 2. Of the four anthiine species known to occur in Brazilian waters, three could be eliminated from consideration; the only species fitting the original description of Anthias duplicidentatus (Miranda Ribeiro, 1903) was Pronotogrammus martinicensis .

Thus, we agree with Anderson & Heemstra in their assertion. Only after their study was published did the shallow-water morph turn up in the MZUSP collection. If a shallow-water specimen had been available at the time Anderson & Heemstra wrote their paper, it would have cast doubts on their synonymy and, at least, have been noted as a different morph, if not redescribed under Miranda-Ribeiro´s specific name. Moura (2003) followed Anderson & Heemstra and identified MZUSP 47132, the only specimen of the shallow-water morph ever deposited in a Zoological Museum until now, as P. martinicensis .

Figures

FIGURE 8. The main reason for Miranda-Ribeiro´s name for the shallow-water morph: duplicidentatus, “doubletoothed”.