Two new records of moray eels representing genera Gymnothorax and Strophidon (Actinopterygii: Anguilliformes: Muraenidae) from the Philippines Author Cabebe-Barnuevo, Roxanne A. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6518-7986 University of the Philippines Visayas, Miagao, Iloilo, Philippines & Department of Science and Technology, Science Education Institute, Bicutan, Taguig City, Philippines Author Obar, El Andro A. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5054-1900 University of the Philippines Visayas, Miagao, Iloilo, Philippines Author Penuela, Dianne Frances A. University of the Philippines Visayas, Miagao, Iloilo, Philippines Author Motomura, Hiroyuki https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7448-2482 Kagoshima University Museum, Kagoshima, Japan Author Babaran, Ricardo P. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4652-3619 University of the Philippines Visayas, Miagao, Iloilo, Philippines Author Malay, Maria Celia D. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0219-4788 University of the Philippines Visayas, Miagao, Iloilo, Philippines mdmalay@up.edu.ph text Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 2023 2023-11-24 53 217 226 http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/aiep.53.108838 journal article http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/aiep.53.108838 1734-1515-53-217 2E55CF5D1C864BC88AA4E61D2F8F0E6B BE3B5E4D55FE57B19D35613CA703737D Gymnothorax nudivomer ( Guenther , 1867) English common name: yellowmouth moray (Fig. 3 Material examined. UPVMI-03157, 619 mm TL, Iloilo Fish Port Complex (IFPC), Iloilo City , Panay Island , Philippines , 8 June 2022 , R. Cabebe-Barnuevo and R.P. Babaran leg. Morphological diagnosis and description. Body elongated, large; tapering towards caudal area. Head large; eyes moderate in size, and situated slightly closer to snout (19% of HL) than rear of lower jaw (22% of HL, see Table 1 ). Mouth large; snout short and blunt; anterior nostril short, tubular, and located at snout tip; posterior nostril large, elliptic, and located above and before anterior margin of eye; upper and lower jaws subequal; teeth not visible when mouth closed; teeth on both jaws uniserial, sharply pointed; anterior teeth large and triangular; posterior teeth short and serrated. Dorsal-fin base very long; its origin anterior to gill opening. Anal-fin base shorter; its origin just behind anus. Caudal fin confluent with dorsal and anal fins. Pectoral and pelvic fins absent. Gill opening moderately large and elongated; located on middle side of body. Anus moderate in size, circular, and positioned anterior to midpoint of body. Supraorbital pores 3: first pore located on snout tip, small and circular; second pore located above anterior nostril, largest in size, circular; third located above first infraorbital pore, equal in size with first pore, circular. Infraorbital pores 4, along upper jaw; first pore located below base of anterior nostril; second pore between anterior nostril and anterior margin of eye; third pore before anterior margin of eye; fourth pore located beyond posterior margin of eye. Preoperculo-mandibular pores 6, along lower jaw; all pores positioned anterior to rictus. Branchial pore 1, located along posterodorsal head anterior to gill opening, posterior to dorsal-fin origin. Teeth pointed and uniserial; intermaxillary teeth 7; median intermaxillary teeth 1; vomerine teeth absent. Table 1. Morphological counts and measurements of Gymonothorax nudivomer and Strophidon dorsalis expressed in absolute and relative values.
Character G. nudivomer UPVMI-03157 S. dorsalis UPVMI-03151
Counts
Supraorbital pores 3 3
Infraorbital pores 4 4
Preoperculo-mandibular pores 6 6
Branchial pores 1 2
Vomerine teeth Absent 4
Intermaxillary teeth 7 6
Median Intermaxillary teeth 1 3
Inner maxillary teeth - 5
Inner dentary teeth - 4
Measurements. Absolute values [mm ]
Total length (TL) 619 777
Head length (HL) 78 95
Measurements. Relative values [%TL ]
Head length 14 12
Body depth at gill opening 10 4
Body depth at anus 8 4
Pre-dorsal length 10 8
Pre-anal length 43 43
Measurements. Relative values [%HL ]
Length of upper jaw 45 32
Length of lower jaw 45 30
Snout length 19 11
Eye diameter 8 6
Interorbital width 15 7
Distance between eye and snout 19 11
Distance between eye and rear of lower jaw 22 18
Note: All measurements were rounded off to the nearest 1 mm. Fresh coloration. Body yellow to light brown, becoming darker on caudal area; covered entirely with white spots of varying sizes; white spots on head and anterior body area very small, becoming large towards caudal area; white spots on dorsal and anal fins similar in body spots; white spots on caudal area composed of both rounded and irregular in shape; posterior margin of caudal fin white; eyes with vertical black bar; inner mouth bright yellow; gill opening black. Color of preserved specimen. Body light brown, becoming darker on caudal area; white spots still visible; posterior margin of caudal fin white; inner mouth white; gill opening black. Distribution. Widely distributed across the Indo-Pacific Ocean. Specific reports are summarized in Table 2 . Table 2. Published reports on the occurrence of Gymnothorax nudivomer and Strophidon dorsalis along with their synonyms, organized chronologically by year of publication.
Species Status Location Reference
Gymnothorax nudivomer
Muraena nudivomer Original name Zanzibar Playfair and Guenther 1867
Lycodontis nudivomer Junior synonym Red Sea Dor 1984
Mozambique (Inhaca) Smith 1962
Gymnothorax xanthostomus Junior synonym Hawaiian Islands Snyder 1904
Gymnothorax insignis Junior synonym Mauritius Seale 1917
Gymnothorax nudivomer Valid name Red Sea Goren and Dor 1994 ; Randall and Golani 1995 ; Fowler and Steinitz 1956 ; Castle and McCosker 1986 ; Khalaf and Disi 1997 ; Golani and Fricke 2018 ; Smith et al. 2019
North Pacific Ocean (Hawaii; Johnston Islands) Randall et al. 1981 ; Uchida and Uchiyama 1986 ; Castle and McCosker 1986 ; Chave and Mundy 1994 ; Boehlke and Randall 2000 ; Mundy 2005 ; Randall 2007
Taiwan (Nanfangao, Hualien and Taitung counties) Chen at al. 1994; Ramos-Castro et al. 2020
Indian Ocean (Mauritius and East Africa from Zanzibar to Transkei, Mascarene Islands, Mayotte) Quero and Saldanha 1995 ; Fricke 1999 ; Laboute and Grandperrin 2000 ; Boehlke and Randall 2000 ; Fricke et al. 2009 ; Fricke et al. 2011 ; Allaria 2016 ; Eudeline 2022 ; Smith and Boehlke 2022
Gulf of Oman Randall 1995 ; Boehlke and Randall 2000
New Caledonia Boehlke and Randall 2000
South Pacific Ocean (Marquesas Islands) Boehlke and Randall 2000
Australia (From Cape York to the southeastern border of Queensland) Boehlke and McCosker 2001 ;
Japan (Kochi Prefecture, Okinawa Islands, Osumi Islands (Iwo-jima Island and Yakushima Island), Amami-oshima Island) Nakabo 2002 ; Motomura et al. 2013 ; Jeong and Motomura 2021 ; Motomura and Harazaki 2017 ; Nakae et al. 2018 ; Motomura et al. 2019
Marianas Islands Myers and Donaldson 2003
Arabian Sea (Coast of Oman, Gulf of Aden, Eastern Coast of Somali) Manilo and Bogorodsky 2003
Tonga Island Randall et al. 2004
Yemen (Socotra Archipelago) Zajonz et al. 2019
Philippines (Iloilo Province) Presently reported study
Strophidon dorsalis
Gymnothorax dorsalis Original name Hongkong Seale 1917
Malaysia Boehlke 1997
Taiwan Boehlke 1997 ; Loh et al. 2011
South China Sea Randall and Lim 2000
Thailand (Prachuap Khiri Khan) Yoshida et al. 2013
Indian waters (Bengal Bay, West coast of India) Ray et al. 2015 ; Kumar et al. 2020
Pakistan Psomadakis et al. 2015
Strophidon dorsalis Valid name Taiwan (Pingtung County, Kaohsiung City) Ho et al. 2015 ; Huang et al. 2020
Vietnam (Nha Trang, Da Nang, Thua Thien-Hue Province) Loh et al. 2015 ; Huang et al. 2020
India (West Bengal Coast, Odisha) Mohapatra et al. 2016 ; 2021
Korea (Jindo Island) Kang et al. 2020
Philippines (Aklan Province) Presently reported study
DNA Barcode. A COI sequence fragment measuring 605 basepairs (bp) was submitted to GenBank under accession number OR214978. Remarks. Gymnothorax nudivomer was originally described as Muraena nudivomer from the Zanzibar Archipelago by Guenther ( Playfair and Guenther 1867 ). It was then widely reported as G. nudivomer distributed across the Indo-Pacific Ocean at depths of 2-271 m ( Mundy 2005 ; Fricke et al. 2009 ). This species can reach up to 1800 mm in length ( Boehlke and Randall 2000 ). In Böhlke et al. (1999), G. nudivomer was listed as one of the moray eels occurring within the western central Pacific but it was not stated if the species was collected specifically within Philippine waters. Furthermore, according to the list of reef fishes by Allen and Erdmann (2012) from the East Indies (which includes the countries of Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and the Philippines), G. nudivomer was not known to exist in the country. Finally, Herre (1953) provided a list of approximately 2145 Philippine species, however, this species was not among them. Hence, the presently reported study treats the specimen collected from Iloilo as the first report (new country record) from Philippine waters. Table 2 and Figs 1 , 2 provide the geographic distribution of the species while Table 3 includes other species within the genus Gymnothorax reported in the country. Reports that did not clearly specify that the data collection occurred within the Philippines have been excluded from the list. Table 3. List of species under the genera Gymnothorax and Strophidon reported in Philippine waters.
Species Reference
Genus Gymnothorax
G. angusticauda (Weber et de Beaufort, 1916) Smith et al. 2018
G. annulatus Smith et Boehlke , 1997 Smith and Boehlke 1997 ; Allen and Erdmann 2012 ; Smith 2012
G. castlei Boehlke et Randall, 1999 Allen and Erdmann 2012
G. chilospilus Bleeker, 1864 Herre 1923 , 1953 ; Smith 2012
G. chlamydatus Snyder, 1908 Allen and Erdmann 2012
G. enigmaticus McCosker et Randall, 1982 McCosker and Randall 1982
G. favagineus Bloch et Schneider, 1801 Herre 1923 , 1953 ; Allen and Erdmann 2012
G. fimbriatus (Bennett, 1832) Motomura et al. 2017
G. flavimarginatus ( Rueppell , 1830) Herre 1923 , 1953
G. fuscomaculatus (Schultz, 1953) Allen and Erdmann 2012 ; Smith and Boehlke 2022
G. herrei Beebe et Tee-Van, 1933 Allen and Erdmann 2012 ; Smith 2012 ; Smith and Boehlke 2022
G. isingteena (Richardson, 1845) Balisco et al. 2023
G. kidako (Temminck et Schlegel, 1846) Herre 1923 , 1953
G. margaritophorus Bleeker, 1864 Herre 1953
G. meleagris (Shaw, 1795) Herre 1923 , 1953
G. microstictus Boehlke , 2000 Allen and Erdmann 2012 ; Boehlke 2000
G. minor (Temminck et Schlegel, 1846) Wagey et al. 2015
G. monochrous (Bleeker, 1856) Allen and Erdmann 2012
G. monostigma (Regan, 1909) Allen and Erdmann 2012 ; Smith and Boehlke 2022
G. nudivomer ( Guenther , 1867) Presently reported study
G. phasmatodes (Smith, 1962) Allen and Erdmann 2012 ; Smith and Boehlke 2022
G. philippinus Jordan et Seale, 1907 Jordan and Seale 1907 ; Herre 1923 ; Allen and Erdmann 2012 ; Smith 2012
G. pictus (Ahl, 1789) Herre 1923 , 1953 ; Smith and Boehlke 2022
G. pindae Smith, 1962 Boehlke 2000
G. polyuranodon (Bleeker, 1854) Herre 1923 , 1953 ; Smith and Boehlke 2022
G. prionodon Ogilby, 1895 Wagey et al. 2015
G. pseudoherrei Boehlke , 2000 Allen and Erdmann 2012 ; Smith 2012 ; Boehlke 2000 ; Smith and Boehlke 2022
G. pseudokidako Huang, Loh et Liao, 2021 Huang et al. 2021
G. pseudothyrsoideus (Bleeker, 1853) Herre 1953 ; Allen and Erdmann 2012 ; Motomura et al. 2017 ; Smith and Boehlke 2022
G. punctatofasciatus Bleeker, 1863 Herre 1923 , 1953 ; Allen and Erdmann 2012
G. richardsonii (Bleeker, 1852) Herre 1923 , 1953 ; Smith and Boehlke 2022
G. robinsi Boehlke , 1997 Allen and Erdmann 2012 ; Smith and Boehlke 2022
G. rueppelliae (McClelland, 1844) Herre 1953
G. thyrsoideus (Richardson, 1845) Herre 1923 , 1953
G. tile (Hamilton, 1822) Herre 1923 , 1953 ; Allen and Erdmann 2012
G. undulatus ( Lacepede , 1803) Herre 1923 , 1953
G. zonipectis Seale, 1906 Herre 1923 , 1953 ; Smith 2012
Genus Strophidon
S. dorsalis (Seale, 1917) Presently reported study
S. sathete (Hamilton, 1822) Motomura et al. 2017 ; Smith and Boehlke 2022
S. tetraporus Huang, Mohapatra, Thu, Chen et Liao, 2020 Huang et al. 2020
This fish is commonly known as the yellowmouth moray and can be easily identified by its tapering body form, white spots scattered throughout the body, and yellow coloration inside the mouth. Gymnothorax elegans and G. nudivomer are closely related species ( Smith et al. 2019 ), but can easily be distinguished based on their color patterns. Gymnothorax elegans Bliss, 1883 has larger and distinct patterns of white markings throughout the body that forms into bars towards the caudal fin (i.e., fig. 13, Smith et al. 2019 ), in contrast to G. nudivomer , which has relatively smaller, rounded spots on the body, that becomes a larger and elongated circle towards the caudal fin (i.e., Fig. 3 , this publication; fig. 24, Smith et al. 2019 ). Figure 3. Gymnothorax nudivomer , UPVMI-03157, 619 mm TL, Iloilo Fish Port Complex (IFPC), Iloilo City, Philippines. Family Muraenidae Rafinesque, 1810 Genus Strophidon McClelland, 1844