Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Family affair

So, what's the story on this one? There's no spectacular story accompanying this description, but I liked the appearence and coloration of the new species. What else do you need to make a painting?
A brand new, beautiful new species of Luzonichthys is described from two specimens, 42-46 mm standard length, collected from Pohnpei, Micronesia. It is named seaver, for the Seaver family in recognition of support from the Seaver Institute for marine research. 

Collections of the new species were made by divers (7 October 2014) on mixed-gas closed-circuit rebreathers using hand nets at depths of 90-100 m. Luzonichthys seaver is found at rock outcrops along a steep slope at top of a drop-off.  

The genus Luzonichthys Herre 1936 now consists of seven species of small, slender serranids within the subfamily Anthiinae, distributed throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific. The genus is distinguished from other anthiine genera in general body size and shape, and in possessing two fully separated dorsal fins, two opercular spines, and 11+15 vertebrae. Seaver is distinct from all other species of the genus in the characters of lateral line scales, gill rakers, pelvic fin length, caudal concavity and coloration. Of the six species of Luzonichthys, it appears to be morphologically most similar to L. earlei and L. whitleyi.

Read the full decription here: Copus, Joshua M., Cassie A Ka'apu-Lyons, Richard L. Pyle (2015): "Luzonichthys seaver, a new species of Anthiinae(PerciformesSerranidae) from Pohnpei, Micronesia"- Biodiversity Data Journal 3: e4902 (27 Apr 2015)

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