Chromis tingting, a new species of damselfish from mesophotic coral ecosystems of southern Japan, with notes on C. mirationis Tanaka (Teleostei: Pomacentridae)
Author
Tea, Yi-Kai
Author
Gill, Anthony C.
Author
Senou, Hiroshi
text
Zootaxa
2019
2019-04-17
4586
2
249
260
journal article
27108
10.11646/zootaxa.4586.2.2
5e2cbe92-3130-45c1-8961-54ead97211a6
1175-5326
2644448
641BC4A0-8AB0-43D0-AD36-4E6249DF91DC
Identity of
Chromis mirationis
Tanaka
Tanaka (1917)
described
Chromis mirationis
from the
holotype
collected off Goto Island,
Nagasaki Prefecture
,
Japan
. The original description of
C. mirationis
is brief, and not accompanied by an illustration. Two nominal species are currently regarded as synonyms of
C. mirationis
:
C. fraenatus
Araga & Yoshino
(in
Masuda
et al.,
1975
), type locality off Minabe,
Wakayama Prefecture
,
Japan
;
Chromis megalopsis
Allen 1976
, type locality west of Bernier Island, Western Australia. Tanaka’s
holotype
of
C. mirationis
is currently listed as lost by Fricke
et al.
(2019). However, we located the
holotype
in the Department of Zoology, University Museum, University of Tokyo, Tokyo (ZUMT 3627;
Figure 1
). Conversely, the
holotype
and
paratype
of
C. fraenatus
(SMBL 72067 and SMBL 73391, respectively) could not be located at in the collection of the Kyoto University Museum, Kyoto University (Dr Y. Kai, pers. comm.). Morphometric data for the
holotype
of
C. mirationis
are provided in
Table 1
. The
holotypes
of both
C. mirationis
and
C. fraenatus
were examined by
Randall
et al.
(1981)
who concluded that they were conspecific. We concur with this assessment, thus the name
C. mirationis
should be applied to that species rather than to the species herein newly described. Diagnostic characters that clearly differentiate the two species are apparent in the
holotype
, particularly the absence of a conspicuous large dark spot in the pectoral axil (
Figure 1B
), and more expansive free margin of the suborbital (extending well beyond vertical through posterior margin of pupil versus to vertical through middle of pupil;
Figures 1C
and
3
). Although Tanaka did not mention the lateral stripe that characterizes
C. mirationis
, this may be weakly developed in large adults (such as Araga & Yoshino’s 91.0 mm SL
paratype
of
C. fraenatus
).