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| Careproctus ambustus Orr in Orr, Pitruk, Manning, et al., 2020. |
Abstract
A new species, Careproctus ambustus, is described from 64 specimens based on evidence from morphological and molecular data. Specimens of Careproctus ambustus, new species, have been historically misidentified as the common Blacktail Snailfish, C. melanurus. The new species is distinguished from C. melanurus by its higher numbers of vertebrae (62–66 vs. 56–62 in C. melanurus), dorsal-fin rays (57–63 vs. 53–58), and anal-fin rays (51–55 vs. 46–51), and longer pelvic disc (14.1–21.2 vs. 12.6–20.7 % HL). In addition, the new species differs from C. melanurus by seven base pairs within a 492-base-pair region of the cytochrome oxidase c subunit 1 region, a 1.4% sequence divergence. Careproctus ambustus, new species, is found at depths of 58–1,172 m and ranges from Japan, through Alaska, to the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, where its distribution overlaps with C. melanurus, which ranges from southern Alaska and British Columbia to Baja California.
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| (A) Careproctus ambustus, new species, UW 152101, 323 mm, holotype, Aleutian Islands, 51.8402°N, 173.886°W, 330 m depth, photographed before fixation and preservation; (B) Careproctus melanurus, UW 47264, 205 mm, Oregon, 44.3993°N, 124.8355°W, 447 m depth, photographed before fixation and preservation. |
Careproctus (Allochir) ambustus, new species, Orr
Scorched Snailfish
Diagnosis.— Careproctus ambustus is distinguished from all other North Pacific species of Careproctus except C. melanurus by the combination of the shape of its pelvic disc, which is oval, longer than wide (vs. round or wider than long in other species of Careproctus), shallowly cupped (vs. flat or deeply cupped), and somewhat smaller than the orbit (vs. minute or large); shallowly notched pectoral fin with elongate rays in the lower lobe (vs. deeply notched with elongate or short rays, or shallowly notched with short rays in other species of Careproctus); and unique COI haplotypes (Orr et al., 2019). It is further distinguished morphologically from C. melanurus, with which it has been historically confused, by its higher vertebral and median fin-ray counts (vertebrae 61–67 vs. 56–62, dorsal-fin rays 57–63 vs. 53–59, anal-fin rays 51–57 vs. 46–52 in C. melanurus), in combination with its longer pelvic disc (14.1–21.2 vs. 12.6–20.7 % HL in C. melanurus).
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Distribution.—Careproctus ambustus is known in the North Pacific Ocean from British Columbia, Alaska, Russia, and Japan (Fig. 3) at depths of 58 to 1,172 m, based on material examined and confirmed field identifications (Tokranov, 2000; Orr et al., 2014a, 2014b; G. R. Hoff, pers. comm., 2016). In the eastern North Pacific, it ranges from British Columbia off central Vancouver Island, throughout the Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands, and into the eastern Bering Sea to at least 60.3°N (Hoff, 2016) and off Cape Navarin in the western Bering Sea (Parin et al., 2014). In the western North Pacific, it ranges from Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands, Russia (Orlov, 1998, 1999, 2001; Sheiko and Fedorov, 2000; Orlov and Tokranov, 2011), to the northwestern coast of Honshu, Japan (Kido and Shinohara, 1997).
Etymology.—The specific epithet of Careproctus ambustus is taken from the Latin ambusti, meaning “scorched,” referring to the black tail that contrasts with the pink to red anterior part of the body.
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| Distribution of Careproctus ambustus, new species (black), and C. melanurus (white) in the Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean based on material examined. Each symbol may represent more than one capture. Bottom contour illustrated is 200 m. |
James W. Orr, Dmitry L. Pitruk, Rachel Manning, Duane E. Stevenson, Jennifer R. Gardner and Ingrid Spies. 2020. A New Species of Snailfish (Cottiformes: Liparidae) Closely Related to Careproctus melanurus of the Eastern North Pacific. Copeia. 108(4); 711-726. DOI: 10.1643/CI2020008
