Mycteroperca fusca ( LOWE, 1836 )

Heemstra, P. C., 1991, A Taxonomic Revision Of The Eastern Atlantic Groupers (Pisces: Serranidae), Bol. Mus. Mun. Funchal 43 (226), pp. 5-71 : 48-53

Mycteroperca fusca ( LOWE, 1836)

Fig. 14 & Plate I, Fig. 2

Serranus fuscus LOWE, 1836: 196 (type locality, Madeira; no indication of a holotype. Neotype: MMF 24928, 300 mm. SL, Madeira, fresh specimen purchased at the Funchal fish market, 12th June 1990.).

? Serranus emarginatus VALENCLENNES, 1843: 10 (type locality, Canary Is; holotype, MN HN 7437, 32 cm. SL).

Serranus simonyi STEINDACHNER, 1891: 352 , P1. 1, Fig. 1 (type locality, Grand Canary 1.; syntypes NMW 39457, 314 & 336 mm. SL).

Diagnosis: (based on 30 specimens, measurements from 18 specimens 13-51 cm.

SL). Dorsal fin XI, 14- 16; anal fin HI,10 - 12; pectoral fin rays 15 - 17; lateral-line scales 67- 78; lateral scale series 89- 106; gill-rakers 11 - 15 + 20-24; total 32-39 (including 0- 3 rudiments on each limb). Body depth contained 2.8-3.3 times in SL; head length contained 2.6-2.9 times in SL; maxilla width 3.852% SL. Rear margin of caudal fin truncate or slightly convex (juveniles) to concave or sinuate (adults); branched caudal rays 8 + 7; no exserted fin rays. Dorsal fin interspinous membranes distinctly incised, the margin of soft-rayed part rounded; 3rd to 5th dorsal fin spines subequal, the 4th or 5th usually longest, 2.6-3.3 times in head length and distinctly shorter than the longest dorsal fin ray; anal fin margin usually rounded (slightly angular in some fish); pectoral fin length contained 1.7-2.3 times in head length; pelvic fin length contained 1.8- 2.6 times in head length. Interorbital area convex; preopercle subangular, finely serrate dorsally, with an indentation above the angle and serrae at the angle enlarged; in adults larger than 50 cm. SL, the preopercular angle is produced into a rounded lobe; ventral edge of preopercle fleshy, without spines. Maxilla reaching to below rear half of eye or slightly past vertical at rear edge of eye; maxilla usually distinctly scaly, but scales reduced on some fish to a narrow strip along dorsal part of lateral surface of maxilla. Mid-lateral part of lower jaw with 2 rows of slender, depressible, teeth, the inner teeth about twice as big as outer teeth. Nostrils set in a shallow depression running forward from eye; anterior nostrils tubular or funnel shaped; rear nostril elliptical, its greatest length about 3 times diameter of front nostril. Eye diameter less than interorbital width in fish larger than 18 cm. SL. Mid-lateral body scales distinctly ctenoid, with minute auxiliary scales. Pyloric caeca 11 (one specimen).

Colour: At Madeira, most adults are brownish or dark grey, with irregular pale blotches and spots and a prominent maxillary streak; a fish under stress may reverse this pattern so that the head and body are pale grey, with irregular dark markings. Juveniles mottled greenish brown, with prominent white spots on the head and body, white streaks on the median fins and hyaline gold pectoral fins; faint, white and dark streaks from eye across operculum; dorsum with 6 faint dark saddle blotches, first on nape, 4 at base of dorsal fin and last on peduncle. A 143 mm. SL juvenile caught in a tidepool at Caniçal (Madeira) is shown on Plate l, Fig 2 . Occasionally, a specimen “the colour of a goldfish“ is caught at Madeira, and one such xanthic fish was caught in December 1988 and put in an aquarium at the Municipal Museum of Funchal. The Director, MANUEL BISCOITO, photographed this fish when it was first put in the aquarium and observed it change, within a few weeks, to the normal brown colour.

Description of neotype (300 mm. SL): Morphometric data are given in Table 1 ; most characters given in the Diagnosis (above) are not repeated here. Caudal fin emarginate. Pectoral fin rays 17 (left) and 16 (right), the length of the longest rays contained 1.95 times in head length; pelvic fin length 1.85 times in head length. Dorsal fin XI, 15; 5th dorsal fin spine longest, 2.8 times in head length; anal fin III,11; anal fin margin angular. Preopercle slightly angular, with the serrae at the corner enlarged, and a shallow indentation in the rear edge near the corner; interopercle with a few small irregular serrae; middle opercular spine small but exposed, lower spine inconspicuous and uppermost spine not apparent; upper edge of operculum sinuous. Maxilla reaching to vertical at rear edge of eye; most of exposed maxillary surface covered with minute scales; a short, curved, fixed canine tooth (mostly covered by lower lip) on each side of syinphysis at front of lower jaw; medial and posterior to each outer canine is a group of 12- 14 slender, depressible canines (some shorter and others longer than the outer, fixed canines) with a median diastema separating these two groups of teeth; lateral part of lower jaw with 2 rows of slender depressible canines, the inner teeth about twice length of outer ones; teeth at front of upper jaw similar to those at front of lower jaw; lateral part of upper jaw with 2-4 irregular rows of small, depressible cardiform teeth and an outer row of larger, curved, semi-fixed and well-spaced canines hidden by upper lip and becoming smaller posteriorly; vomer with small, slender canines in a chevron-shaped band 2 -5 teeth wide; palatines with similar teeth in a band 5 teeth wide anteriorly and narrowing to a single row posteriorly. Lateral-line scales 78; lateral scale series 100. Gill-rakers 14 + 23, including 2 rudiments on upper limb and 1 on lower limb.

Colour in preservative: Head and body greyish brown, with irregular, pale grey spots on ventral half of body and median fins; most spots on body have a dark centre; prominent black maxillary streak on cheek along upper edge of maxilla; gill-rakers densely pigmented.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION

Mycteroperca ƒasca is known only from the Macaronesian islands: Madeira, the Azores, Canaries, and the Cape Verde Islands. It may also occur in the Mediterranean Sea and along the west coast of Africa, but the only specimens of Mycteroperca that I have seen from these localities have been M. rubra .

REMARKS

All 18 of the M. fusca from Madeira that have been examined have the typical low gill-raker counts (11 - 15 + 20-24) for this species. It appears, therefore, that M. rubra (with gill-raker counts of 16- 18 + 28-31) does not occur at Madeira. Although LOWE’s (1836) original description of Serranas fiiscas clearly applies to a species of Mycteroperca , he did not give gill-raker counts for his specimen (nor even a length); and the holotype is apparently not extant. However, Serranus fuscus is considered identifiable with the species here recognized as M. fusca , because it is the only species of Mycteroperca known from Madeira.

The holotype of Serranus emarginatus VALENCIENNES, 1843 (MNHN 7437) is from the Canary Islands, but it is a dried specimen, hence the gill-rakers cannot be counted. VALENCIENNES (1843) did not give the gill-raker count in his original description of this species.

Serranus simonyi , described by STEINDACHNER (1891) from two specimens collected at the Canary Islands, was included in the synonymy of Mycteroperca rubra by BOULENGER (1895) and FOWLER (1936), but it was overlooked by C. L. SMITH (1971) and DOOLEY et al. (1985). The smaller of the two syntypes in the Naturhistorisches Museum of Vienna (NMW 39457, 314 mm. SL) has a misshapen anal fin (evident in STEINDACHNER'S original illustration) with only 7 soft-rays, but the 336 mm. SL syntype has a normal anal fin with 12 soft-rays. And the dorsal fin count of 11 spines and 16 rays (XI, 15 in the illustrated specimen) also matches the dorsal fin counts forM rubra . However, the gill-raker count of 12 + 23 given by STEINDACHNER (and confirmed on both syntypes by Dr. BARBARA HERZIG) is considerably fewer than that of M. rubra (16- 18 + 28-31). In view of this significant difference in the number of gill-rakers, Serranus simonyi is here regarded as a synonym of M. fusca .

In their checklist of the shorefishes of the Canary Islands, DOOLEY et al. (1985) included the paper in which STEINDACHNER described M. simonyi in their list of Literature Cited, but they omitted Serranus simonyi in their text. They list Mycteroperca rubra (with VALENCIENNES' descriptions of Serranus fuscus , S. acutirostris and S. emarginatus as synonyms) as the only species of Mycteroperca at the Canary Islands. It is possible that both M. rubra and M. fusca occur there, but all of the 5 specimens that I have examined from the Canaries were M. fusca .

WASCHKBWITZ and WIRTZ (1990) reported on the annual migration and return to the same site in Madeira of a xanthic grouper identified as Epinephelus alexandrinus . This fish (which apparently was identified only visually and not collected) is probably M. fusca , because 1) " Epinephelus alexandrinus " (= E. costae ) does not occur in Madeira; 2) in a recent book on the marine fauna of Portugal, Madeira and the Azores ( Saldanha, 1979) a photograph of M. fusca was misidentified as E. alexandrinus ; and 3) xanthic specimens of M. fusca are known at Madeira and the Canary Islands.

MATERIAL EXAMINED

MADEIRA: Neotype, MMF 2492 s (300 mm.); BMNH 1898.1.26 (3, 250- 420 mm.); BMNH 1934.4.6 (267 & 270 mm); BMNH 1953.11.1.62 (255 mm); MMF 3199 (158 mm); MMF 3517 (150 mm.); MMF 3521 (375 mm.); MMF 19908 (545 mm); MMF 19910 (518 mm.); MMF 4526 (260 mm); MMF 24932 (143 mm.); RUSI 34713 (3, 301 - 315 mm); USNM 316489 (272 mm.).

AZORES: Santa Maria : RUSI 34607 (4, 221- 340 mm.); RUSI 34609 (129 & 140 mm.).

CANARY ISLANDS: MNHN 7437 , holotype of Serranus emarginatus VALENCIENNES , (320 mm., dried specimen). Grand Canary I.: NMW 39457 , syntypes of Serranus simonyi STEINDACHNER , (314 & 327 mm.). Tenerife : NMW 40787 (3, 86- 104 mm.); NMW 40791 (137 & 139 mm.).

CAPE VERDE ISLANDS: IRSNB 14376 (345 mm.).

Figures

Fig. 2-Cephalopholis nigri, about 20 cm. SL, Ghana from BOULENGER 1895,,

Fig. 1 - Diagramatic illustration of a grouper's head to show method of measuring maxilla width (MW); UL =upper lip; SM=supramaxilla.