Abstract
Two forms of muraenid leptocephali, collected from the western Pacific Ocean, were identified as Gymnothorax sagmacephalus Böhlke 1997 and Gymnothorax albimarginatus (Temminck and Schlegel 1846) on the basis of morphometric and genetic analyses. The leptocephali of each species were characterized, respectively, by counts of 172–175 and 186–191 myomeres, 43–44 and 47 predorsal myomeres, 109–113 and 127–134 preanal myomeres, and 100–104 and 118–119 last vertical blood vessel myomeres. Gymnothorax sagmacephalus leptocephali had minute melanophores over much of the head and body, closely resembling the condition in Gymnothorax minor (Temminck and Schlegel 1846), whereas those of G. albimarginatus not only had minute melanophores over much of the head and body, but also a pair of melanophore groups on the posteroventral and posterodorsal aspects of the head. Such groups are here considered to represent highly specific characters. Although a previous opinion postulated that G. sagmacephalus is a juvenile of G. albimarginatus, and the adult morphologies of the two species have a lot in common, they clearly differ in both leptocephalus morphology and genetic sequence. Therefore, G. sagmacephalus was concluded as being a valid species.
Similar content being viewed by others
Reference
Abbott CC (1860) Description of new species of apodal fishes in the museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Proc Acad Nat Sci Philadelphia 12:475–479
Blache J (1977) Leptocéphales des poissons Anguilliformes dans la zone sud du Golfe De Guinée. Faune Tropicale. ORSTOM, Paris
Bleeker P (1852) Derde bijdrage tot de kennis der ichthyologische fauna van Celebes. Natuurkundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indië 3:739–782
Bleeker P (1857) Tweede bijdrage tot de kennis der ichthyologische fauna van Boero. Natuurkundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indië 13:55–82
Bloch ME (1795) Naturgeschichte der ausländischen Fische, vol 9. J. Morino, Berlin
Böhlke EB (1989) Methods and Terminology. In: Böhlke EB (ed). Fishes of the western North Atlantic. Sears Foundation for Marine Research, memoir 1, part 9, vol. 1, Anguilliformes and Saccopharyngiformes, pp 1–7
Böhlke EB, McCosker JE, Böhlke JE (1989) Family Muraenidae. In: Böhlke EB (ed). Fishes of the western North Atlantic. Sears Foundation for Marine Research, memoir 1, part 9, vol. 1, Anguilliformes and Saccopharyngiformes, pp 104–206
Böhlke EB (1997) Note on the identity of elongate unpatterned Indo-Pacific moray, with description of a new species (Muraenidae, subfamily Muraeninae). Proc Acad Nat Sci Philadelphia 147:89–109
Böhlke EB, McCosker JE (1997) Review of the moray eel genus Scuticaria and included species(Pisces: Anguilliformes: Muraenidae: Uropterygiinae). Proc Acad Nat Sci Philadelphia 148:171–176
Castle PHJ (1965) Muraenid leptocephali in Australasian waters. Trans Roy Soc NZ Zool 7:57–84
D’Ancona U (1928) Muraenoidi (Apodes) del Mar Rosso e del Golf di Aden. Memoria, Comitato Talassografico Italiano
Froese R, Pauly D (2013) FishBase. Updated April 2013. http://www.fishbase.org. Accessed 10 June 2013
Hatooka K (2002) Family Muraenidae. In: Nakabo T (ed). Fishes of Japan with pictorial keys to the species, English edition. Tokai University Press, Tokyo, pp 196–211
Jones S, Pantalu VR (1952) On the metamorphosing stages of the talabon eel, Muraenesox talabon (Cantor) with description of some leptocephali from the estuaries of Bengal and Orissa. J Asiat Soc Beng 18:129–140
Jordan DS, Gilbert CH (1883) List of fishes now in the museum of Yele College, collected by Prof. Frank H. Bradley, at Panama, with descriptions of three new species. Proc US Nat Mus 5:320–632
Kaup JJ (1856) Uebersicht der Aale. Archiv für Naturgeschichte 22:41–77
Kimura M (1980) A simple method for estimating evolutionary rate of base substitutions through comparative studies of nucleotide sequences. J Mol Evol 16:111–120
Lesson RP (1828) Description du nouveau genre Ichthyophis et de plusieurs espèces inédites ou peu connues de poissons, recueillis dans le voyage autour du monde de la Corvette “La Coquille.” Mem Soc d’Hist Nat Paris 4:397–412
Miller MJ, Tsukamoto K (2004) An introduction to leptocephali: biology and identification. Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo, Tokyo
Nair RV (1947) On the metamorphosis of two leptocephali from the Madras plankton. Proc Indian Acad Sci Sec B 25:1–14
Saitou N, Nei M (1987) The neighbor-joining method: a new method for reconstructing phylogenetic trees. Mol Biol Evol 4:406–425
Sasaki K, Amaoka K (1991) Gymnothorax prolatus, a new moray from Taiwan. Jpn J Ichthyol 38:7–10
Shaw G, Nodder FP (1789–1813) The Naturalist’s Miscellany, or coloured figures of natural objects; drawn and described from nature. London
Smith DG (1989a) Introduction to leptocephali. In: Böhlke EB (ed). Fishes of the western North Atlantic. Sears Foundation for Marine Research, memoir 1, part 9, vol. 2, pp 657–668
Smith DG (1989b) Family Muraenidae: Leptocephali. In: Böhlke EB (ed). Fishes of the western North Atlantic. Sears Foundation for Marine Research, memoir 1, part 9, vol. 2, pp 900–916
Smith JLB (1962) The moray eels of the western Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. Ichthyol Bull JLB Smith Inst Ichthyol (23):419–444
Tamura K, Peterson D, Peterson N, Stecher G, Nei M, Kumar S (2011) MEGA5: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis using maximum likelihood, evolutionary distance, and maximum parsimony methods. Mol Biol Evol 28:2731–2739
Tanaka S (1918) Two new species of Japanese fishes. Zool Mag 30:51–52
Tawa A, Mochioka N (2009) Identification of aquarium-raised muraenid leptocephali, Gymnothorax minor. Ichthyol Res 56:340–345
Tawa A, Kishimoto H, Mochioka N (2012a) Larval identification following metamorphosis in the slender brown moray Strophidon ui from the western North Pacific. Ichthyol Res 59:8–13
Tawa A, Kobayakawa M, Yoshimura T, Mochioka N (2012b) Identification of leptocephalus larvae of the tiger moray Scuticaria tigrina (Anguilliformes; Muraenidae) based on morphometric and genetic evidence. Ichthyol Res 59:378–383
Tawa A, Kobayakawa M, Yoshimura T, and Mochioka N (2013) Identification of leptocephali representing four muraenid species from the western North Pacific, based on morphometric and mitochondrial DNA sequence analyses. Bull Mar Sci 89:461–481
Temminck CJ, Schlegel H (1846) Pisces. Parts 10–14. In: von Siebold PF (ed) Fauna Japonica. Lugduni, Batavorum, pp 173–269
Acknowledgments
We thank H Ikeda and R Utsumi (Wakayama prefecture) for their significant contributions to this work, and the captains and crews of the R/V Kaiyo Maru (Japanese Fisheries Agency) and the R/V Hokko Maru (Fisheries Research Agency) for their efforts in collecting specimens. Thanks are due also to GS Hardy (Ngunguru, New Zealand) for his critical comments on the manuscript and great help with English.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This article was registered in the Official Register of Zoological Nomenclature (ZooBank) as 91A6F487-2357-4181-8773-4FD6F1F9A029.
This article was published as an Online First article on the online publication date shown on this page. The article should be cited by using the doi number.
About this article
Cite this article
Tawa, A., Aoyama, J., Yoshimura, T. et al. Leptocephalus larvae of two moray eels (Anguilliformes; Muraenidae), Gymnothorax sagmacephalus and Gymnothorax albimarginatus, identified from morphometric and genetic evidence. Ichthyol Res 61, 32–41 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-013-0369-4
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-013-0369-4