Pempheris Cuvier, 1829

Koeda, Keita & Bessho-Uehara, Manabu, 2024, A review of the genus Pempheris (Teleostei, Pempheridae) found in Japan and Taiwan, ZooKeys 1220, pp. 123-163 : 123-163

Genus Pempheris Cuvier, 1829

Pempheris Cuvier, 1829: 195 [type species: Pempheris touea = Kurtus argenteus Bloch & Schneider, 1801 = Sparus? compressus ( Shaw, 1790): junior synonym of Pempheris compressa ( Shaw, 1790)].

Priacanthopsis Fowler, 1906: 122 (type species: Pempheris mulleri: junior synonym of Pempheris schomburgki Müller & Troschel, 1848)].

Catalufa Snyder, 1911: 528 (type species: Catalufa umbra: junior synonym of Pempheris japonica Döderlein, 1883).

Liopempheris Ogilby, 1913: 61 (type species: Pempheris multiradiatus Klunzinger, 1879).

Description.

Body shape oval, strongly compressed laterally; body deep, deepest at or near origin of dorsal fin; dorsal outline of head nearly straight or generally curved from snout to origin of dorsal fin; ventral outline of body generally curved to origin of pelvic fin; body depth rapidly decreases at posterior half of body; depth of caudal peduncle <1 / 4 of maximum body depth.

Eye large; snout very short; interorbital space slightly convex or flat; two nostrils located just anterior to anterior margin of eye. Mouth large, strongly oblique; lower jaw slightly project beyond upper jaw; villiform teeth on jaws; tip of tongue free from floor of mouth. Lips thin. Gill opening large; outer margin of opercle and preopercle smooth. Gill membranes on left and right sides separate, free from isthmus. Gill rakers long, 6–13 (upper) + 17–28 (lower) on first gill arch.

Body and head almost fully covered by strongly or weakly ctenoid scales except for lips and anterior to eye; ~ 1 / 3 of basal part of anal fin covered with small scales. Lateral line starts from uppermost position of opercle, generally follows dorsal outer margin, through middle of caudal peduncle, and extending to middle of posterior end of caudal fin. Anus slit-like, located just anterior to anal fin. Light organ present in some species (absent in species distributed in the Northern Hemisphere).

Vertebral counts 10 + 15 (abdominal + caudal), very rarely 10 + 16; predorsal interneurals 3; 4 th interneural supporting 1 st dorsal-fin spine, inserted between 2 nd and 3 rd vertebrae; last interneural with last dorsal ray inserted between neural spines of 11 th and 12 th vertebrae, or 12 th and 13 th. First interhaemal supporting 1 st and 2 nd anal-fin spine, inserted in front of haemal spine of 11 th vertebra, and pointing to posterior end of dorsal fin.

Dorsal fin single, triangular; its base short, shorter than longest ray; 5–7 spines, last longest; 8–13 soft rays, 1 st or 2 nd longest, rapidly shorter posteriorly. Anal fin low, its base very long, length longer than body depth; three spines, last longest; 24–49 soft rays, 1 st longest, gradually shorter posteriorly. Pectoral fin pointed posterodorsally; 15–20 rays, uppermost two rays unbranched, 3 rd or 4 th ray longest, shorter in lower; pectoral-fin length longer than length of longest dorsal-fin ray. Pelvic fin small, with one spine and five soft rays, 1 st longest; last ray not connected to body with membrane. Caudal fin triangular, weakly forked.

Body color uniformly silver, copper, or golden without distinct patterns except for Pempheris ornata Mooi & Jubb, 1996 (not in the Northern Hemisphere) which has longitudinal golden stripes on body laterally.

Distribution.

Indo-Pacific Ocean: north to southern Japan, east to Easter Island (not including Hawaii Islands), south to Tasmania, west to South Africa, and the Red Sea (some species migrated from the Red Sea to the eastern part of Mediterranean); western Atlantic Ocean: north to Florida; south to Brazil ( Mouneimne 1979; Golani and Ben-Tuvia 1986; Golani and Diamant 1991; Koeda et al. 2014).

Remarks.

This genus includes a large number of species, and the counts, measurements, and colorations are not very informative in distinguishing them from each other because of the interspecific uniformity and the intraspecific diversity of the results. This had led to significant taxonomic confusions, and the recent jumbled descriptions of abnormally high numbers of new species reported from the Indian Ocean have caused further misunderstandings in the taxonomy of the genus.

Fowler (1906), Snyder (1911), and Ogilby (1913) attempted to divide the genus Pempheris into two genera based on scale morphology. Tominaga (1968) described and compared the internal anatomy of many species of the genus and suggested that several species of genus Pempheris possess transitional characteristics to the genus Parapriacanthus . Therefore, he subdivided the genus Pempheris into seven groups. That work indicated that a systematic revision of the genus should be pursued. Although the authors of the present study are now revising the systematic taxonomy of the family Pempheridae on the basis of morphology and molecular approaches, the present classification of the genus Pempheris is tentatively used only for the species of Japan and Taiwan.

Molecular phylogenetic analysis using three methods ( ML, NJ, and BI) showed consistent topology, except for the placement of P. ufuagari . In the ML and BI trees, P. ufuagari is positioned as a sister to a clade composed of P. vanicolensis and P. oualensis with low node supporting values. In contrast, the NJ tree places P. ufuagari as a sister to a clade composed of P. vanicolensis and P. adusta . All species analyzed in this study displayed monophyly with high supporting values on their respective nodes.