How many valid Pleurosicya (Teleostei: Gobiidae) species are known from the Red Sea?

Menachem Goren, Sergey V. Bogorodsky, Shevy B.S. Rothman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Four species of the gobiid genus Pleurosicya are reported from the Red Sea: P. bilobata, P. mossambica, P. plicata, and P. prognatha. Pleurosicya bilobata is reported as a new record for the Red Sea based on underwater photographs taken from a seagrass area at Dahab, Egypt, Gulf of Aqaba. A previous Red Sea record of P. micheli, a species occurring from Indonesia to French Polynesia, is based on a misidentification of P. mossambica and can be excluded as the Red Sea species. Phylogenetic COI barcode analysis showed that the genetic distance between Red Sea population and Western Indian Ocean specimens of P. mossambica is low, confirming the synonymy of P. sinaia, described from the Red Sea, with P. mossambica. Furthermore, phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that specimens from the western Pacific under the name P. mossambica are genetically distinct and may represent an undescribed species. Brief descriptions accompanied with underwater photographs are provided for four species of Pleurosicya from the Red Sea.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)113-129
Number of pages17
JournalZootaxa
Volume5258
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 27 Mar 2023

Funding

FundersFunder number
BFAR-NFRDI
Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources— National Fisheries Research and Development Institute
Tatyana Malkerova
Old Dominion University
Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat

    Keywords

    • Egypt
    • Systematics
    • commensal
    • gobies
    • mitochondrial COI

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