Serranidae

Wirtz, Peter, Fricke, Ronald & Biscoito, Manuel José, 2008, The coastal fishes of Madeira Island — new records and an annotated check-list, Zootaxa 1715, pp. 1-26 : 11

Serranidae

Smith and Craig (2007) have revised the Serranidae in a molecular study; they suggest to recognize the families Epinephelidae and Serranidae (the latter containing three subfamilies, namely Anthiinae, Serraninae , and Trachininae) and to include them in the Scorpaenoidei. We have adhered to the old classification here.

Tortonese in Whitehead et al. (1986: 787-788) and Smith in Quéro et al. (1990: 701-702) recorded Mycteroperca rubra (Bloch, 1793) from Madeira but, according to Heemstra und Randall (1993), the species does not occur there. Records of M rubra from Madeira apparently refer to Mycteroperca fusca ( Lowe, 1838) .

Serranus scriba (Linnaeus, 1758) was recorded from Madeira by Tortonese in Whitehead et al. (1986: 791-792) but probably confused with another species. The first author has not encountered S. scriba in more than 1000 SCUBA dives at Madeira, and there are no specimens of this species in the collection of the MMF.

* Anthias anthias (Linnaeus, 1758) —Swallowtail seaperch

Not recorded from Madeira by Tortonese in Whitehead et al. (1986: 781) or Maugé in Quéro et al. (1990: 707) even though the species is common there and was recorded by Maul (1949: 149) and by Nunes (1974: 80).

* Epinephelus marginatus (Lowe, 1834) —Dusky grouper

Recorded from Madeira by Tortonese in Whitehead et al. (1986: 785-786) and Smith in Quéro et al. (1990: 700-701) under the name Epinephelus guaza (non Linnaeus, 1758). Taxonomic decision of Heemstra (1991: 38). In a molecular study, Craig and Hastings (2007) propose to transfer this species to the genus Mycteroperca .

* Mycteroperca fusca ( Lowe, 1838) — Island grouper

Originally described from Madeira by Lowe (1838: 196) under the name Serranus fuscus . Waschkewitz and Wirtz (1990) - using the erroneous name Epinephelus alexandrinus , following Saldanha (1979) - and Wirtz (2007) report on the migratory behavior of this species.

* Serranus atricauda Günther, 1874 —Blacktail comber

* Serranus cabrilla (Linnaeus, 1758) —Comber

This species occurs in Madeira only in deeper water; it is replaced in shallow water by S. atricauda .