Apogon

Baldwin, Carole C., Brito, Balam J., Smith, David G., Weigt, Lee A. & Escobar-Briones, Elva, 2011, Identification of early life-history stages of Caribbean Apogon (Perciformes: Apogonidae) through DNA Barcoding, Zootaxa 3133, pp. 1-36 : 25

Apogon sp. 2

Identification. No larvae or juveniles match the five unidentified adult specimens of this lineage in our genetic analysis (Appendix 1, one adult is shown in Fig. 31 ). The lineage clusters phenetically with A. quadrisquamatus , A. mosavi , and A. robbyi ( Fig. 1 ), and all of those species lack dark markings on the body. There is a concentration of pigment on the central area of the caudal peduncle that is primarily orange and contains few if any melanophores. In preserved specimens this may appear as a diffuse oval blotch of melanophores or no marking at all. In the other species, there is a distinct basicaudal bar ( A. mosavi ) or circular spot ( A. quadrisquamatus and A. robbyi ) of melanophores that is retained in preserved specimens. Specimens in this lineage usually have 13 gill rakers on the lower limb of the first arch vs. usually 14 or 15 in A. mosavi , but additional material is needed to determine if there are modal differences in any counts. This lineage likely represents an undescribed species.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Neighbor-joining tree derived from mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase 1 sequences showing genetic lineages of Apogon species from Bahamas (BAH), Belize (BLZ), Curaçao (CUR), Florida (FCC, FWRI, SMS), and Saba Bank (SAB). L = larva, J = juvenile, A = adult.

FIGURE 31. Apogon sp. 2, adult, 21.1 mm SL, DNA # SAB 0 603030, photograph by J. T. Williams.