Halichoeres javanicus, (BLEEKER)

Randall, John E. & Allen, Gerald R., 2010, Two New Labrid Fishes Of The Genus Halichoeres From The East Indies, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 58 (2), pp. 281-289 : 282

STATUS OF HALICHOERES JAVANICUS (BLEEKER)

Bleeker (1857: 341) described Julis (Halichoeres) javanicus from one specimen 83 mm in total length from Karangbollong on the south coast of Java. Eschmeyer (2010) provided additional data on the type locality as follows: Karang- Bollong Bay, on northeastern tip of Nusa Kambangan Island, 4.5 km southeast to Cilacap, Jawa Tengah Province, Java, Indonesia, Eastern Indian Ocean, ~ 7°45'34"S 109°02'32"E. Bleeker (1862: 125, Pl. 40 Fig. 3) added Singapore as a locality and illustrated the species in colour in his Atlas Ichthyologique.

Kuiter (2002: 115) published six colour figures identified as Halichoeres javanicus , three from the Seribu Islands, Java and three from Singapore. Each of us has underwater photos like those of Kuiter’s photographs from Singapore (Figs. A, C, and D of page 115) that we believed to be colour variants of H. nigrescens . However, we realised Kuiter’s photographs might represent the true H. javanicus . Recent collection of specimens by the second author and Mark V. Erdmann from West Papua, Indonesia, with the same colour pattern as the three figures of H. javanicus in Kuiter’s book provided the opportunity for comparison with Bishop Museum specimens of H. nigrescens from Java, Singapore, the Philippines, and Queensland. We could find no differences in fin-ray, scale, or gill-raker counts, and nothing is evident in body and fin proportions. However, a difference was found in the number of sensory pores behind and below the eye, beginning with one posterior to the upper edge of the pupil and ending below the anterior end of the orbit. The Bishop Museum specimens identified as H. nigrescens have 11–13 pores. The specimens from West Papua with a colour pattern like Kuiter’s three figures labeled H. javanicus have 6 or 7 such pores. We then asked Martien van Oijen of the Nationaal Natuurhistorische Museum in Leiden to check the number of pores on the holotype of H. javanicus (RMNH 6581). He provided a photograph of the head ( Fig. 1 ), which shows 11 pores. We therefore conclude that H. javanicus should remain a synonym of H. nigrescens , and that the specimens from West Papua represent an undescribed species.

Tables 1 and 2 give the measurements of the new species as percentages of the standard length. Proportional measurements in the text are rounded to the nearest 0.05. Data in parentheses in the descriptions refer to the paratypes.

Figures

Fig. 1. Head of holotype of Halichoeres javanicus Bleeker, RMNH 6581 (M. van Oijen).