Pareques acuminatus ( Bloch & Schneider, 1801 )

Carvalho-Filho, Alfredo, Oliveira, Claudio, Maximiano, Loriane, Tavera, Jose, Acero, Arturo & Marceniuk, Alexandre Pires, 2022, Review of the Pareques acuminatus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801) species complex with revalidation of Pareques lineatus (Cuvier, 1830) from the Western Atlantic (Percomorphacea: Sciaenidae), Zootaxa 5195 (5), pp. 401-418 : 404-409

Pareques acuminatus ( Bloch & Schneider, 1801)

Figures 1 and 2 , Tables 2 and 3

Type specimen: Neotype: UF 210054 (1, 100 mm SL), 24.5458333, -81.7533333, USA, Florida, Florida Keys , 0.25 mi offshore from Key West.

Non type specimens: UF 68203 (2, 118– 128 mm SL), 30.1191080, -85.7246760, USA, Florida, St. Andrew Bay at Panama City ; UF 3944 (1, 143 mm SL), 28.9166667, -85.1166667, USA, Florida, S of Apalachicola Bay ; UF 171937 (1, 102 mm SL), 25.9786910, -80.1178480, USA, Florida, Broward, Hallandale Public Beach ; UF 218870 (4, 100–117 mm SL), 24.8458333, -80.6208333 USA, Florida, Florida Keys, 0.33 mi SSW of Alligator Lighthouse , shallow ledge of reef; UF 218787 (2, 118– 123 mm SL), 24.8375000, -80.7241667, USA, Florida, Florida Keys, patch reefs at SW end of Lower Matecumbe ; UF 248271 (1, 75 mm SL), 24.5458333, -81.7533333, USA, Florida, Florida Keys, 0.25 mi offshore from Key West ; UF 159940 (1, 91 mm SL), 17.7885500, -64.6172111, Virgin Islands (USA), St. Croix , north shore of Buck Island Reef National Monument ; UF 140955 (2, 59–81 mm SL), 23.5367660, -79.5550540, Bahamas, Cay Sal Bank, Anguilla Islands, southwest shore of Cotton Cay ; UF 46091 (2, 60–85 mm SL), 17.2000000, -88.1866667, Honduras, shrimp grounds off Belize, inside main reef ; CIRUV 021016 Colombia, Isla Providencia ; UVTP 2557 Colombia, Granate ; CIRUV 017066 Colombia, Isla Aguja ; UF 214068 (2, 95–135 mm SL), 11.9463050, -66.6785970, Venezuela, Los Roques Islands, Gran Roque Island (El Roque), S side of SW corner at pinnacle, labeled as Equetus horsti .

Diagnosis: Pareques acuminatus is distinguished from its congeners in the western Atlantic as follows: from P. lineatus by having 44–49 lateral line pored scales (vs. 50–55, excluding specimens from Colombia; Table 3 ), 6 scales above lateral line (vs. 8–9; Table 2 ) and 8 scales below (vs. 9–10; Table 2 ), 8 straight white stripes, usually wider than black stripes on sides (vs. not more than 7 irregular, not straight and narrower white stripes; Fig. 2 ), and presence of submarginal white stripe on soft dorsal fin (vs. absence of whitish submarginal stripe); from P. iwamotoi by absence of dark bar between eyes (vs. presence of dark bar between eyes), body with 3–5 broad dark horizontal stripes and narrow stripes in between those (vs. one dark stripe from midbody to caudal-fin base), and absence of wide transverse dark bar from dorsal-fin origin almost to pelvic-fin base (vs. presence of this bar); from P. umbrosus , by having chin with 5 pores (vs. 6 pores), and sides coloration, black to dark brown with broad white stripes (vs. brownish with thin black lines).

Pareques acuminatus can also be distinguished from its congeners from the eastern Pacific as follows: from P. fuscovittatus by first dorsal fin without yellow rear edge (vs. with yellow rear edge) and 9–10 dorsal-fin spines (vs. 12); from P. lanfeari , by head with horizontal dark stripes (vs. without dark horizontal stripes), body with 3–5 broad dark horizontal stripes and narrow stripes between those (vs. body with 4 thin black horizontal stripes), iris brown (vs. iris yellow-brown), and 44–49 scales at lateral line (vs. 52–59); from P. perissa by having 9–11 dorsalfin spines (vs. 12), 36–40 dorsal-fin soft rays (vs. 32–33), seven anal-fin soft rays (vs. 8) and 44–49 scales in lateral line (vs. 50–53); from P. sp. A by having 12–17 gill rakers on first arch (vs. 19–23) and 36–40 dorsal-fin soft rays (vs. 42–45); from P. viola by having 44–49 scales in lateral line (vs. 50–56).

Molecular diagnosis: The DNA barcode of Pareques acuminatus shows that the specimens analyzed form a distinct, strongly supported cluster, with a bootstrap value of 90% ( Fig. 3 ), with genetic distances between this species and all the congeners analyzed ranging from 6.2% to 14.8% ( Table 4 ). Pareques acuminatus presents 29 positions in COI with different nucleotides when compared directly with P. lineatus ( Table 5 ). Pareques acuminatus presents 5 unique haplotypes and differs from P. lineatus by 29 mutational steps ( Fig. 4 ).

Description: Counts and measurements in Tables 2 and 3 . Body oblong, compressed, moderately deep, dorsum elevated, tapering posteriorly to slender caudal peduncle. Head upper profile moderately steep, slightly concave from snout tip to dorsal-fin origin; lower profile of head almost straight from mandibular tip to pelvic-fin origin; snout blunt, rounded, overhangs upper jaw; posterior nostril elongate, larger than oval to rounded anterior nostril; mouth small, inferior, almost horizontal, lower jaw included; teeth villiform in both jaws, those of upper-jaw outer row enlarged, recurved; vomer and palatines toothless; upper jaw reaching slightly past middle-orbit; three marginal pores on snout, three smaller pores on rostrum; five pores on chin, one medial, two mental pairs; eye diameter moderate, larger than interorbital, similar to snout length; preopercular border smooth, membranous.

First dorsal fin higher than second, reaching 4th ray when adpressed in adults, farther in younger or immature individuals, and even to caudal-fin distal end in some juveniles; second dorsal fin long, posterior border somewhat rounded; pectoral-fin insertion below about middle of first dorsal fin, tip pointed; pelvic-fin length slightly shorter than pectoral fin, its origin just after pectoral-fin base, tip usually rounded, eventually pointed, reaching beyond pectoral-fin tip in adults, much longer in juveniles; anal-fin base short, distal tip usually pointed, second spine rather stout; caudal fin convex to almost straight in adults, lanceolate to filamentous in juveniles.

Body and head covered with ctenoid scales, except preorbital, tip of snout and lower jaw; small ctenoid scales covering soft dorsal- and anal-fin bases. Swim bladder simple, carrot-shaped, without distinct diverticula or anterior horns.

Live colors: Adults ( Fig. 2d ): Generally black to very dark brown head, body, and fins, without golden tones on face and belly. A series of conspicuous white longitudinal, almost straight stripes on entire head and body: the first extending from the insertion of the first dorsal fin along each side of the base of the second dorsal fin to about mid-fin; the second and third start together on the front of the nape then, on each side of the body, divide and pass along the upper back, enclosing a dark stripe, then join again under the middle of the second dorsal and continue for a short distance further along the base of the soft dorsal; the fourth starts on the forehead above the eye and the fifth at the top edge of the eye, then both run parallel to near the rear of the soft dorsal, then join and run along the upper edge of the caudal peduncle; the sixth runs from the lower edge of the eye along the top edge of the pectoral base and along the lower flank to above the anal fin, where it fades out as it continues along the center of the caudal peduncle; the seventh runs parallel to the sixth, and join it at the caudal peduncle, after the anal fin; an eight white stripe runs from the lower end of the opercle to the anal-fin origin; fins blackish to dark brown, the border of soft dorsal with a submarginal whitish stripe and the posterior margin of the spinous dorsal fin usually white, eventually faded; anterior portion of snout and lips darkened; forehead often with a broad whitish blotch that reaches the dorsal-fin origin; iris golden brown, pupil black.

Juveniles: Recently recruited individuals ( Fig. 2a ): white with a shadow of yellow; a black transverse bar crossing upper head, a black stripe in the interorbital and two small conspicuous black dots, one on snout tip, the other just below it; a black stripe from anterior border of eye, crossing orbit to the end of the middle caudal fin; a black stripe from tip of the white spinous dorsal fin that curves back on the shoulder and merges with the lateral one below the center of the soft dorsal; soft dorsal and anal fins translucent; pectoral fins translucent, with a black basal section; pelvic fin white with a black bar down its center.

Changes with growth ( Fig. 2c, e ): As the fish grows, the existing black stripes shrink, and two additional stripes form, one running from upper head to middle of the soft dorsal and another one from below eye to lower caudal peduncle; pectoral and pelvic fins became black with outer borders white; tip of snout with large black spot and a bar from upper jaw to eye and another in the interorbital; the first dorsal is black with white outer borders and a black-centered ocellus at about the middle of the anterior part of the fin. With further growth, the black body stripes shrink and increase in number to 8, the first dorsal fin becomes dark with a white band along its rear edge and the ocellus reduces its size to just a dark area at the tip of the fin; the pectoral, pelvic, anal, and caudal fins are greyish with black outer borders. As the fish grows further, the overall color becomes black, the white color is conspicuously restricted to the stripes described for adults and the spiny dorsal-fin ocellus disappears completely. The above description is based in our observations of live and preserved specimens, and published pictures (i.e., Miller & Woods, 1988, Holt & Riley, 1999; Robertson & Van Tassel, 2019).

Nocturnal coloration: At night, juveniles and adults sometimes display a large black bar that runs from the tip of the spinous dorsal fin to the tip of the pelvic fin and another smaller bar from the middle of the second dorsal fin to the middle of the anal fin.

Color of preserved specimens: Adults and immature specimens blackish-brown color and white stripes become more evident, not faded. The juveniles maintain their basic coloration, the black marks rarely faded.

Distribution and habitat: Pareques acuminatus occurs from Virginia and the Gulf of Mexico to Cuba and Puerto Rico in the Central Caribbean and to Colombia in northern South America ( Fig. 4 ); it does not occur in Bermuda ( Smith-Vaniz et al., 1999). The southern limit of the range in the Caribbean is unclear; a specimen from Puerto Rico (UF 214350) presented meristics of P. acuminatus and coloration of P. lineatus ; a picture of a Puerto Rican specimen taken by Randall (1996), clearly displays the coloration of P. lineatus ; on other hand, the illustration of Cervigón (1993: 268) clearly shows a specimen of P. acuminatus showing that the species range through Central America reaches northern South America, west of the Orinoco plume. It lives in rocky and coral reefs from one to about 100 meters deep, usually between three and 30 meters. Recently recruited juveniles can be observed in very shallow water under ledges or near sand pockets close to reef crevices, often in small groups of about the same age. Young are also found in small groups in deeper water and adults live among rocks, under ledges, inside caves and, eventually in the open. Their habits are mainly nocturnal, spending the day sheltered and feeding at night on sand, mud, and rubble bottoms close to the reef, feeding on crustaceans, polychaetes, small bony fishes, and zooplankton.

Remarks: Grammistes acuminatus was described by Bloch & Schneider (1801) with no known types or type locality; the description was based in “Chaetodon, lineis fuscis, longitudinalibus, varius” of Seba (1759), who presented an illustration of the examined specimen ( Fig. 1a ), but it differs from Seba´s description by the number of dorsal-fin rays (49–50 versus 45–50) and the number of anal-fin rays (9 versus 11). The absence of diagnostic characters and geographic locality prevent the recognition of which molecular and morphological lineages of Pareques acuminatus complex is the one originally described by Seba (1759) and Bloch & Schneider (1801). Thus, it is necessary to designate a neotype to define the identity and to establish a type locality for Grammistes acuminatus [= Pareques acuminatus ].

According to the recommendations of Article 75.3 of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature ( ICZN, 1999), the authors choose as a neotype for Pareques acuminatus the specimen with 100 mm SL, collected in Key West , Florida, USA, deposited at the University of Florida ( UF 210054), which shares the unique morphological characters of the samples found in North America and parts of the Caribbean .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Pareques acuminatus (A, B) and Pareques lineatus (C, D), body in lateral view. (A) illustration, reproduced from Seba (1759: pl. 26, fig. 33); (B) neotype, UF 210054, Florida, USA; (C) syntype, MNHN 7475, Brazil; (D) syntype, MNHN 0043, Brazil.

FIGURE 2. Color patterns of Pareques acuminatus (left column) and P. lineatus (right column). A, B: recently recruited individuals; C, D: juveniles, about 10–35 mm SL; E, F: immatures, about 35–80 mm SL; G, H: adults. Images A, C, E, and G, Carlos and Allison Estape, Florida, USA; B, Alfredo Carvalho-Filho, Praia do Forte, Bahia, Brazil; D and H: Carlos E.L. Ferreira, Arraial do Cabo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; F: Athila Bertoncini, Taipus de Fora, Bahia, Brazil.

FIGURE 3. Molecular phylogeny constructed by maximum likelihood method based on K2P+G distance with partial sequences of the mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase subunit I. The tree with the highest log likelihood (ln L = -2351.51) is shown. Numbers on each branch indicate bootstrap values; values below 50% are not shown.

FIGURE 4. Sampling localities of examined material and haplotype network. Squares: specimens only with DNA sequenced; triangles: specimens only with morphological data; circles: specimens with sequenced DNA and morphological data. Pareques acuminatus (green) and Pareques lineatus (yellow). Question marks are of specimens with intermediate characters. Haplotype network of COI gene, constructed using the maximum likelihood approach, with the evolutionary models GTR+I+G. In the haplotype network, samples in red represent fishes from Colombia or Panama and samples in pink represent fishes from Virgin Islands.

Tables

TABLE 2. Morphometric and meristic data of adult Pareques acuminatus and P. lineatus. Pareques acuminatus Pareques lineatus

	Pareques acuminatus			Pareques lineatus
	N	Mean	Range	N	Mean	Range
Proportions in SL
Standard length (mm)	21		59–143	30		70–161
Head length		32.7	28.9–39.0		30.6	27.1–34.8
Head depth					34.7	33.4–35.9
Post-orbital length					17.0	14.0–21.7
Orbital diameter		9.7	8.4–13.3		8.9	8.1–10.0
Interorbital distance		7.9	6.6–10.0		7.7	6.7–9.2
Snout length		8.6	7.4–11.7		7.2	5.3–8.9
Mouth width					9.7	8.4–12.2
Body depth		38.8	34.1–41.2		35.9	33.2–38.8
Body width					16.9	13.9–19.7
Distance from snout to dorsal fin		36.5	33.7–43.3		28.4	22.7–38.5
Dorsal-fin length		25.6	16.8–36.7		22.4	15.9–31.3
Dorsal-fin base length		11.7	9.8–15.3		11.6	9.6–13.5
Distance from snout to pectoral fin		31.1	27.5–33.9		27.9	24.8–29.8
Pectoral-fin length		22.5	19.8–24.0		23.7	20.8–33.5
Distance from snout to pelvic fin					31.1	29.8–32.9
Pelvic-fin length		24.7	22.0–28.8		22.1	20.4–25.7
Distance from snout to anal fin		69.4	63.3–80.0		67.4	64.2–71.6
Anal-fin length		14.3	11.1–17.1		11.6	9.5–13.3
Anal-fin base length		10.5	8.9–13.6		9.5	8.2–10.9
Caudal-peduncle height		9.7	8.8–11.7		8.9	7.8–10.2
Caudal-peduncle length					26.1	21.8–29.2
Meristics
Dorsal-fin spines		10	9–11		10	10–10
Dorsal-fin rays		38	36–40		39	37–40
Anal-fin spines		2	2–2		2	2–2
Anal-fin rays		7	7–7		7	7–7
Pectoral-fin rays		16	16–16		16	15–18
First arch gill rakers		15	12–17		14	12–15
Second arch gill rakers		13	12–15		12	9–14
Scales above lateral line		6	6–6		8	8–9
Scales below lateral line		8	8–8		9	9–10