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| Pseudanthias timanoa Victor, Teitelbaum & Randall, 2020 |
Abstract
A new fairy basslet, Pseudanthias timanoa n. sp., is described from 21 specimens, 50.0-79.1 mm SL, collected recently from New Caledonia, in the southwestern corner of the tropical Pacific Ocean. The new species is typically found on deep coral-reef slopes, at depths of 50-100 m. One of many slender, brightly colored fairy basslets found throughout the Indo-West Pacific Ocean, P. timanoa is part of the Pseudanthias lori species complex. It is distinguished from its congeners by the live color pattern, which is bright reddish pink with a series of 7 red-orange bars along the upper body followed by a deeper-red rectangular saddle on the caudal peduncle. Mature males develop a greatly elongated third dorsal-fin spine, up to about 1.5 times head length and long, trailing caudal-fin filaments. The sequence of the mtDNA barcode marker COI for the new species is 10.3% divergent (p-distance) from the nearest relative in the Barcode of Life Database, P. lori, from the Coral Sea and Philippines. The new species appears in the aquarium trade as the Sunrise Anthias. With this discovery, there are now 16 species of Pseudanthias documented from New Caledonia.
Key words: taxonomy, ichthyology, coral-reef fishes, DNA barcoding, goldies, Sunrise Anthias.
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| Pseudanthias timanoa, fresh paratype, male, 55.1 mm SL, SIO 20-17, from aquarium trade with caudal filaments eroded, collected from Dukati Reef, New Caledonia. photo: Benjamin C. Victor |
Pseudanthias timanoa, Victor, Teitelbaum & Randall
Sunrise Anthias
Pseudanthias timanoa with incorrect authorship “Randall, 2014”, a nomen nudum until the present description, Laboute & Grandperrin 2016: 217, fig. a single photograph (without any description in the text, and based on no description, publication, or collected specimen).
Diagnosis. A species of Pseudanthias with dorsal-fin elements X,15 or 16 (most 16), third spine greatly elongated in mature males, up to about 1.5 times head length, 2.2 in SL, up to three times length of next spines; anal-fin elements III,7; pectoral-fin rays 18 or 19 (most 19); caudal fin deeply lunate with filamentous tips in mature males (eroded away in aquarium specimens), maximum caudal concavity 3.1 in SL in intact paratype; body elongate, body depth 3.4 (3.2–4.0) in SL; head and body reddish pink with 7 red-orange bars along upper body followed by a deeper-red, saddle-like rectangle on caudal peduncle.
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| Pseudanthias timanoa (top) New Caledonia (Richard Bajol); Pseudanthias lori (middle) Cenderawasih Bay, W. Papua Province, Indonesia; Pseudanthias flavoguttatus (bottom) Tanimbar Islands, E. Banda Sea, Indonesia (both Gerald Allen). |
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| Figure 6. Pseudanthias timanoa, school underwater at 74 m, New Caledonia (Pierre Laboute). Figure 7. Pseudanthias timanoa, two males and a female (at upper right), with a P. lori at lower left foreground and a P. flavicauda at lower right, about 90 m, New Caledonia (Patrick Plantard). |
Etymology. The new species is named timanoa, a euphonious amalgamation of the second author’s three children’s names: Timothée, Maëlle, and Noa. The specific epithet is treated as a noun in apposition.
Benjamin C. Victor, Antoine Teitelbaum and John E. Randall. 2020. Pseudanthias timanoa, A New Fairy Basslet from New Caledonia, South Pacific (Teleostei: Serranidae: Anthiadinae). Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation. 36, 6-15. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4050419
