Benedenia hawaiiensis Yamaguti, 1968

Deveney, Marty R. & Whittington, Ian D., 2010, Three new species of Benedenia Diesing, 1858 from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia with a key to species of the genus, Zootaxa 2348, pp. 1-22 : 9-10

Benedenia hawaiiensis Yamaguti, 1968

(Table 1)

Synonym: Benedenia sargocentron Zhang, Yang & Liu, 2001 (new synonomy).

Type host and locality: Priacanthus cruentatus (Lacépède) (= Heteropriacanthus cruentatus (Lacépède) see Starnes 1988) ( Perciformes : Priacanthidae ), Hawaii (see Yamaguti 1968).

Other hosts and localities: From Yamaguti (1968), B. hawaiiensis is also reported from the following 4 orders, 9 families and 23 species of fish off Hawaii: Aulopiformes : Synodontidae : Synodus dermatogenys (Fowler) ; Beryciformes : Holocentridae : Holocentrus scythrops ( Jordan & Evermann) (= Neoniphon aurolineatus Liénard , see Randall & Heemstra 1985); H. spinifer (= Sargocentron spiniferum (Forsskål) see Randall 1998); Perciformes : Acanthuridae : Acanthurus dussumieri (Valenciennes in Cuvier & Valenciennes); A. nigrofuscus ; Naso hexacanthus (Bleeker) ; Chaetodontidae : Chaetodon miliaris (Quoy & Gaimard) ; Mullidae : Mulloidichthys samoensis (Günther) (= Mulloidichthys flavolineatus Lacépède , see Randall 2004); Parupeneus bifasciatus (Lacépède) ; P. chryserydris (probably P. chryserydros Lacépède , now P. cyclostomus Lacépède , see Randall et al. 1997); P. multifasciatus (Quoy & Gaimard) ; P. pleurostigma ; P. porphyreus (probably Pseudupeneus porphyreus Jenkins ); Pomacentridae : Abudefduf abdominalis Quoy & Gaimard ; Chromis ovalis (probably C. ovatiformes Fowler ); Dascyllus albisella ; Scaridae : Scarus sordidus (Forsskål) (= Chlorurus sordidus Swainson , see Bellwood 1991); Tetraodontiformes : Monacanthidae : Alutera scripta (probably A. scriptus Osbeck ); Amanses carolae ( Jordan & MacGregor); A. pardalis (Gray) (= Cantherhines pardalis Rüppel , see Masuda et al. 1988); A. sandwichiensis (Quoy & Gaimard) ; Pervagor spilosoma (Lay & Bennett) ; Balistidae : Xanthichthys ringens (L.).

The new synonomy proposed here adds Sargocentron spiniferum (Forsskål) ( Holocentridae ), suspected as a host by Whittington et al. 2001 and added with more certainty above, from a different locality: Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China (see Zhang et al. 2001).

Site on host: Gills and body surface (sites recorded for type host species, Priacanthus cruentatus , only; see Yamaguti 1968); gill filaments of S. spiniferum (see Zhang et al. 2001).

Specimens studied: GDGZ: No. 20000728–1–4 (holotype and paratypes of B. sargocentron ) (1 slide, 4 specimens – marked holotype and 3 paratypes) ex Sargocentron spiniferum , Guangzhou, P.R. China; USNPC: No. 63587 (holotype and paratypes)(1 slide, 14 specimens; holotype marked) ex gills and fins of Priacanthus cruentatus , Hawaii; MPM: No. 15393 (paratypes)(1 slide, 6 specimens) ex Holocentrus scythrops , Hawaii; MPM: No. 15394 (paratypes)(2 slides, 1 with 1 specimen, 1 with 6 specimens) ex Parupeneus pleurostigma , Hawaii; MPM: No. 15395 (paratypes)(1 slide, 1 specimen) ex P. bifasciatus , Hawaii; MPM: No. 15396 (paratypes)(2 slides, 1 with 16 specimens, 1 slide with 17 specimens) ex P. porphyreus , Hawaii; MPM: No. 15397 (paratypes)(2 slides, 1 with 13 specimens, 1 with 1 specimen) ex Dascyllus albisella , Hawaii; MPM: No. 15398 (paratypes)(1 slide, 1 specimen) ex Acanthurus nigrofuscus , Hawaii.

Comparative measurements of B. hawaiiensis for each host species are presented in Table 1. Note that 1 specimen from H. scythrops (= N. aureolineatus ), 1 specimen from Priacanthus cruentatus (= Heteropriacanthus cruentatus ) and the single specimen from Parupeneus bifasciatus could not be measured because the material was either immature or of poor quality.

Remarks: We examined 4 specimens described as B. sargocentron by Zhang et al. (2001) and compared them with available material of B. hawaiiensis deposited by Yamaguti (1968). Three of four specimens deposited by Zhang et al. (2001) are excellent. The tapering, narrow distal tip of the penis, and in particular the shapes of the accessory sclerites and hamuli, identify this material as B. hawaiiensis . The specimens from China are considerably larger in most respects than much of the material deposited by Yamaguti (Table 1), but are of similar size to the largest specimens from Yamaguti’s material. The specimens of Zhang et al. (2001) have an indistinct, broad lobe on the body margin near the common genital pore, lack wavy muscle near the haptor margin and do not have a prominent vagina. The germarium has an internal fertilisation chamber and the testes include some dorso-ventral columns of muscle. We observed glands of Goto in one specimen, but they are small and inconspicuous. The Chinese specimens fit the definition of B. hawaiiensis by Whittington et al. (2001) and therefore we consider B. sargocentron a synonym of B. hawaiiensis .