Diaphenchelys laimospila, Huang & Smith & Loh & Liao, 2021

Huang, Wen-Chien, Smith, David G., Loh, Kar-Hoe & Liao, Te-Yu, 2021, Fig. 4 in Periclimenaeus apomonosi Park & De Grave 2021, sp. nov., Zoological Studies (Zool. Stud.) 60 (24), pp. 1-17 : 13-14

Diaphenchelys laimospila

Strophidon McClelland, 1844 is another muraenid genus that morphologically resembles Diaphenchelys , with an elongated body, anteriorly placed eyes, and biserial maxillary and dentary teeth. The close, but reciprocally monophyletic relationship of the two genera was supported in the present study ( Fig. 10 ). Despite the high similarity and close systematic position of Diaphenchelys and Strophidon, Huang et al. (2020) proposed that the differences in the number of vertebral formulae (4–9, 43–58, 126–155 vs. 8–12, 59–84, 155– 213) and the number of branchial pores (two, with the only exception from the paratype of D. laimospila vs. ranging from one to eight), based on D. dalmatian , D. pelonates and the five species of Strophidon , support the distinction of the two genera. The VF of D. laimospila falls into the range of Diaphenchelys and is significantly lower than species of Strophidon . Moreover, the number of branchial pores of D. laimospila , mostly two, also concurs with the character of Diaphenchelys except that the paratype has four on the left side of head. The additional branchial pores of paratype may be individual variation.

Diaphenchelys laimospila can be easily distinguished from D. dalmatian by having more anteriorly placed dorsal-fin origin (predorsal length 6.9– 7.0% vs. 7.4–8.6% of TL; predorsal vertebrae 4 vs. 6–9), more preoperculo-mandibular pores (6 vs. 5), and pale brown of ground color with whitish spots (vs. white or yellowish white of ground color with brown spots) ( Table 2; Hibino et al. 2017; Mohanty and Mohapatra 2020); and from D. pelonates by longer tail (63.2–63.8% vs. 59.6–61.5% of TL), longer head (11.3–11.4% vs. 9.4–10.0% of TL), shorter trunk (24.8–25.4% vs. 29.1% of TL), shorter predorsal length (60.6–62.2% vs. 69.3% of HL), fewer infraorbital pores (3 vs. 4–5), fewer vertebrae (4, 45, 125–131 vs. 4–6, 55–58, 153–155), and the coloration of anal fin (pale brown with dark margin vs. dark brown with pale margin) and lower jaw (pale brown with dense whitish spots vs. dark brown) ( Table 2; McCosker and Randall 2007).

Figures

Fig. 10. The maximum likelihood tree of Diaphenchelys laimospila sp. nov. based on partial mitochondrial COI gene sequences (593 bp) and GTR + Γ + I model with Uropterygius macrocephalus as outgroup. Numerals beside the internal branches are bootstrap values.