English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

A new genus and species of monacanthid fish, Enigmacant/ws filamentosus, is described from three specimens, one from the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean and two from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. It is characterised by the structure and positioning of its epineural ribs (distal extremities branched or expanded, ribs commencing on the third abdominal vertebra). The new taxon has no apparent close relatives, but appears most similar to Paramonacanthus, particularly in body shape. However, it lacks the distinctively elevated soft dorsal and anal fins in the male of Paramonacantlzus, as well as having no sexual dimorphism of the osteological structures supporting these fins. Like members of the monacanthid genera Rudarius and Acreichtlzys, the new taxon matures at sizes smaller than 30 mm SL, and may be categorised as another miniature representative of the family. INTRODUCTION Monacanthids have often been described on the basis of small to minute specimens. Most of these have turned out to represent the juvenile form of species that grow considerably larger (e.g. Monacanthus nitens Hollard, 1854, holotype 41 mm in standard length (SL) = Pervagor janthinosoma Bleeker, 1854, maximum size 113 mm SL; Monacanthus peroni Hollard, 1854, holotype 45 mm SL = Pseudomonacanthus peroni, maximum size 350 mm SL; and Brachaluteres taylori Woods, 1966, holotype 14 mm SL = B. taylori, maximum size 50 mm SL). Tyler (1970) was the first to describe a truly minute monacanthid, Rudarius minutus, which is sexually mature at only 17 mm SL. Hutchins (1977) subsequently presented a description of an even smaller species, Rudarius excelsus, which reaches sexual maturity at 15 mm SL. In their redescription of Acreichthys radiatus (Popta, 1900), Tyler and Lange (1982) reported mature specimens as small as 20 mm SL. The purpose of the present paper is to describe as new another miniature monacanthid which achieves maturity at sizes less than 30 mm SL. Although new, descriptions of this species have appeared before, but taxonomic confusion has masked its true identity. Fraser-Brunner (1940), in his revision of the monacanthid genus Step/umolepis, provided the first description of this species under the name Stephanolepis freycineti. He believed that his small specimen from the Seychelles (BMNH 1908.3.23.294, 36 mm SL, originally reported in a list by Regan [1908] as Monacanthus setifer Bennett) represented a species first described from Mauritius by Quoy and Gaimard (1824) as Balistes freycineti. Unfortunately, a subsequent examination by the present author of the type of Balistes freycineti (MNHN A.4100, 178 mm SL) showed that it is a member of the Australian genus Meuschenia with a distribution restricted to southern Australia (Hutchins, 1977). As reported by Whitley (1943), the collections of Quoy and Gaimard-which included material from both Mauritius and Australia-were on board the "L'Uranie" when it was shipwrecked in the Falkland Islands in 1820. These were saved and eventually conducted to France, but not before some of the material was apparently mixed up. Whitley (1943), for example, reported on the atherinid Atherina jacksoniana; this was described by Quoy and Gaimard (1824) from a specimen supposedly collected in Sydney Harbour but in fact was from South America. Also the description of Batistes hippocrepis Quoy and Gaimard, 1824 was based on an Australian specimen and not an example from Mauritius as stated. Therefore, the fish from the Seychelles that was presented as Stephanolepis freycineti by Fraser-Brunner cannot be the species described by Quoy and Gaimard. Some twenty-five years later, Woods (1966) provided a detailed description of a pair of monacanthids from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific under the earlier name of Paramonacanthus oblongus (Schlegel, 1850). Woods believed his small (27-35 mm SL) specimens represented immature individuals of that species. As part of an investigation on the systematics of the family by the present author (Hutchins, 1988),

Description of a new genus and species of miniature monacanthid fish from the Seychelles and Marshall Islands