Epinephelus areolatus ( Forsskål, 1775 ), Forsskal, 1775

Rothman, Shevy B. S., Stern, Nir & Goren, Menachem, 2016, First record of the Indo-Pacific areolate grouper Epinephelus areolatus (Forsskål, 1775) (Perciformes: Epinephelidae) in the Mediterranean Sea, Zootaxa 4067 (4), pp. 479-483 : 479-481

Epinephelus areolatus ( Forsskål, 1775) (Figures 1,2)

Perca areolata Forsskål 1775 :XI, 42 δ. Type locality: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Red Sea.

Examined material. SMNHTAU—P 15834, Standard length: 302 mm, Off Tirat-Ha'Carmel, Mediterranean Sea, Israel (32°47'02"N, 34°54'02"E), 30/8/2015, Coll. Ali Drawshi, at a depth of 37m, with a fishing lure.

A brief description of the specimen. An Epinephelus species with emarginate caudal fin, 84 series of scales along the body; dorsal fin with 11 spines and 14 rays; anal fin with 3 spines and 8 rays; pectoral fins with 17 rays; pelvic fins with a spine and 5 rays. Gill rakers on lower limb of first gill arch 12, 1 at angle of the arch and 4 rakers on upper limb + 4 rudimentary gill rakers. Rear margin of preopercle serrate, with small spines at its lower angle ( Fig. 2 ). First dorsal spine is above the origin of upper pectoral ray. Pelvic fin begins below a vertical line from the origin of lowest pectoral ray.

Color. Body reticulated with whitish background and brown spots that gradually become smaller and orange on head and belly ( Fig. 1 ). The spots become darker towards rear part of body, caudal fin and soft part of dorsal fin. Posterior edge of caudal fin and upper edge of soft part of dorsal fin with white margin.

Selected body proportions. As percentage of standard length: head length, 37%; body depth, 35%; longest dorsal spine, 12%; longest dorsal ray, 12%; longest anal spine, 6%; longest anal ray, 16%; distance snout, pelvic fin, 42%; distance snout, base of pectoral fin, 35%; distance snout, dorsal fin, 36%; distance snout, anal fin, 72%; pectoral fin length, 22%; pelvic fin length of standard length, 17%. As percentage of head length: upper jaw length, 37%; eye diameter, 15%; distance snout-eye, 26%.

Distribution. E. areolatus is widely distributed in the coastal waters of the Indian Ocean, Indo –Pacific Archipelago, north-west Australia, South China sea, Taiwan, Japan and the Red Sea ( Heemstra & Randall 1993).

Genetic characterization. Intra-specific ML (Maximum likelihood) phylogenetic tree of previously-published COI sequences has revealed a distinct biogeographic separation between populations located east to the Indo-Malay Peninsula, i.e., Western Indian Ocean (WIO), and west, i.e., West Pacific (WP, Fig. 3 ). Pairwise comparisons, based on K2P model, have shown an average genetic divergence of 3.49±0.61% between these clades and an average of 0.85±0.21% within the WIO clade and 0.46±0.16% within the WP. In addition, our alien specimen from the Mediterranean aligned within the WIO clade, and presented an identical haplotype with two specimens from the Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea (R. Holtzman, unpublished data, 2015) thus confirming its Red Sea origin.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Epinephelus areolatus (Forsskål, 1775) from the Mediterranean. SMNHTAU—P 15834. Photo O. Rittner.

FIGURE 2. Epinephelus areolatus (Forsskål, 1775) from the Mediterranean. The arrow indicates the small spines on the lower angle preopercle. SMNHTAU—P 15834. Photo O. Rittner.

FIGURE 3. Intra-specific phylogenetic relationships of Epinephleus areolatus from the Indo-west Pacific, based on Maximum likelihood analysis (ML) with 500 replications of COI sequences mined from GenBank database. * - indicates sequenced mined from BOLD database; ** - unpublished data.