Latridae Gill

Ludt, William B., Burridge, Christopher P. & Chakrabarty, Prosanta, 2019, A taxonomic revision of Cheilodactylidae and Latridae (Centrarchiformes: Cirrhitoidei) using morphological and genomic characters, Zootaxa 4585 (1), pp. 121-141 : 128

Family Latridae Gill

Diagnosis. Latridae can be diagnosed by the following combination of characters: body ovoid to elongate and compressed or round in cross-section; dorsal-fin elements XV–XXV, 22–44; anal-fin elements III, 7–37; pectoralfin rays 14 with ventral rays thick and unbranched. Gas bladder present; supraneurals never in the arrangement of Cheilodactylidae—all genera except Mendosoma with two supraneurals prior to first dorsal pterygiophore in arrangement of 0+0/2; no cirri on dorsal-fin elements. Latridae can be distinguished from all other cirrhitoids by having two supraneurals preceding the first neural spine, except for Mendosoma , which can be distinguished by having a single dorsal-fin spine articulating with the first dorsal pterygiophore (as opposed to two in all other families within Cirrhitoidei; Fig. 2 ). While not all larvae have been described, Latridae remains the only family in Cirrhitoidei to exhibit a late-larval ‘paperfish’ stage where larvae have deep bodies with a strong ventral keel adapted for pelagic life.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Radiographs highlighting the arrangement of supraneurals and neural spines that can differentiate the Cheilodactylidae and Latridae. All genera of these two families are shown. a) Cheilodactylus fasciatus ROM 50995, b) Goniistius plessisi USNM 226553, c) ‘Goniistius’ brachydactylus USNM 153508, d) ‘Goniistius’ fuscus CAS 20803, e) ‘Goniistius’ nigripes YPM 5957, f) Nemadactylus macropterus USNM 39674, g) Latris lineata USNM 176770, h) Latridopsis forsteri USMN 84370, i) Dactylophora nigricans USNM 440480, j) Mendosoma lineatum CSIRO 1119. All scale bars represent 5mm.