Pagellus affinis Boulenger, 1888

Amir, Shabir Ali, Tanaka, Fumiya, Siddiqui, Pirzada Jamal & Iwatsuki, Yukio, 2013, Integrating multiple lines of evidence to better understand the evolutionary divergence of humpback dolphins along their entire distribution range: a new dolphin species in Australian waters?, Cybium 37 (3), pp. 220-222 : 222

Pagellus affinis Boulenger, 1888

English Name: Arabian Pandora

( Fig. 1B ; Tab. I)

Pagellus affinis Boulenger, 1888: 659 ( Muscat, Oman, Gulf of Oman, Arabian Sea, Northwestern Indian Ocean); Randall, 1995: 227, fig. 589 (Arabian Gulf to the Gulf of Aden and northern coast of Somalia); Manilo and Bogorodsky, 2003: S109 (Arabian Sea).

Material examined

A specimen, CEMB-P 2012-00078 (formerly MUFS 39720 ), 183 mm in SL, purchased at the West Wharf Fish Harbour , Karachi (presumably collected from western Pakistani coastal waters according to the seller), 26 May 2012 .

Description

Counts and proportional measurements of Pagellus affinis are shown in table I. Body elongate, somewhat fusiform; head profile convex from upper lip to origin of dorsal fin; no scales on preopercular flange, nor on soft dorsal and anal fins; scalation of top of head reaching to beyond vertical diameter of eyes; sharp teeth, small molars in jaws; dorsal spines slender and thin, fifth longest; last dorsal and anal-fin soft rays a little bit longer than penultimate rays; second and third anal spines subequal; caudal fin forked; pectoral fins long, reaching to anterior origin of anal fin.

Colour in fresh specimen ( Fig. 1B ): indistinct yellow colour in snout part of head; pinkish and silvery in colour combination with a light blue spotted line running along the scale-lines above and below the lateral line.

Remarks

Pagellus affinis was described from the specimen of Muscat, Oman by Boulenger (1888). Subsequently the species was report- ed and known only from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Aden and northern coast of Somalia ( Bauchot and Smith, 1983; Carpenter et al., 1997). Manilo and Bogorodsky (2003) mentioned the species as present along the western coast of India, but this is the first objec- tive record from Pakistan.

The specimen (CEMB-P 2012-00078, 183 mm SL) of P. affinis showed nine anal-fin rays, while comparative Omani specimens of P. affinis (MUFS 33502-33506, 33668, 33670-33671, 8 specimens, 188-232 mm SL) and literature reference counts ( Bauchot and Smith, 1983; Randall, 1995) indicated 10 anal-fin rays. The nine count of the Pakistani specimen is considered as variation of the species.

Figures

Figure 1. - A: Diplodus omanensis, 310 mm SL; B: Pagellus affinis, 183 mm SL. Both species were purchased at the West Wharf Fish Harbour, Karachi, Pakistan, 26 May 2012.