Apogon melanurus Bleeker, 1860

Russell, Barry C., Fraser, Thomas H. & Larson, Helen K., 2010, Castelnau’S Collection Of Singapore Fishes Described By Pieter Bleeker, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 58 (1), pp. 93-102 : 95

Apogon melanurus Bleeker, 1860

The painting of Apogon melanurus Bleeker, 1860c , No. 149 (Fig. 5), has the mouth closed so placement in Cheilodipterus is not certain, however, the drawn specimen was slender. Bleeker (1860c) thought this species was similar to Apogon aureus based on the caudal marking, but differed in its body shape and the stripe-like spots. No known species of Apogon , sensu lato, has this combination of colours on the head, body or fins. Perhaps Apogon taeniopterus Bennett, 1836 , could be considered a possible candidate, but it has well-defined dark mid-stripes in the second dorsal and anal fins, characteristics absent from the painting and descriptions. Cheilodipterus macrodon (Lacépède, 1802) as described by Gon (1993) and the photos (Kuiter & Kozawa, 2001) of Cheilodipterus octolineatus appear to be close to Castelnau’s painting. The painting differs from both of these possibilities by lacking stripes on the head, by having a blackish distal area on the anal fin and a uniform first dorsal fin. The blackish portions of the caudal peduncle and caudal fin are consistent with some species of Cheilodipterus .

Other species of Cheilodipterus drawn by Castelnau are similar: C. lineatus, No. 507 (Fig. 6), C. quinquelineatus, No. 574 (Fig. 7) and C. octovittatus, No. 575 (Fig. 8). All are slender species. We consider this painting to be a Cheilodipterus of unknown identity, perhaps a poor representation of Cheilodipterus macrodon which is known from Singapore.