Neoglyphidodon (Allen, 1991)

Tang, Kevin L., Stiassny, Melanie L. J., Mayden, Richard L. & DeSalle, Robert, 2021, Systematics of Damselfishes, Ichthyology & Herpetology 109 (1), pp. 258-318 : 294

Neoglyphidodon .

— Since these species were placed in their own genus (as Paraglyphidodon ; Allen, 1975a) and then relocated to the newly erected Neoglyphidodon (Allen, 1991) , the composition of the group has been widely accepted and its monophyly has been corroborated consistently by subsequent phylogenetic studies ( Quenouille et al., 2004; Cooper et al., 2009; Cowman and Bellwood, 2011; Hofmann et al., 2012; Litsios et al., 2012a, 2012b; Frédérich et al., 2013; Rabosky et al., 2013, 2018; Lobato et al., 2014; DiBattista et al., 2016; Gaboriau et al., 2018; Delrieu-Trottin et al., 2019). There are currently nine species classified in Neoglyphidodon , most of which inhabit the East Indies (Allen and Erdmann, 2012). We examined seven of the nine, missing only N. crossi and N. mitratus , and found robust support (100% bootstrap) for the monophyly of the genus. Our phylogeny shows a ladder-like topology of sequential sister taxa ( N. oxyodon , N. polyacanthus , N. bonang , N. melas , N. carlsoni , N. nigroris , and N. thoracotaeniatus ) that is congruent with all of the studies cited above except Gaboriau et al. (2018) and Rabosky et al. (2018), where the positions of N. carlsoni and N. nigroris are switched. Of the two species not sampled, Allen (1991: 221) stated that N. crossi most closely resembled N. bonang and Allen and Erdmann (2012: 1137) stated that N. mitratus and N. thoracotaeniatus are a geminate species pair. If that is accurate, then the two most basal species, N. oxyodon and N. polyacanthus , would be the only ones that lack scales on the suborbital (Allen, 1991: 246) and the remaining seven species would share a scaled suborbital.