Muraena retifera Goode & Bean, 1882

Ceríaco, Luis M. P., Santos, Bruna S., Semedo, Thiago B. F., Garcia, Lucas Canes & Moreira, Cristiano Rangel, 2023, The fish collection of José Mariano da Conceição Veloso (1742 - 1811) and the beginning of ichthyological research in Brazil, with a taxonomic description of the extant specimens, Zootaxa 5391 (1), pp. 1-85 : 25

Muraena retifera Goode & Bean, 1882

Extant specimens: ACL-HN-0060 ( Fig. 11 ).

Classification on the specimen: “P. Ap. Muraena ”.

Common names on the specimen (Portuguese/Tupi): None.

Comments: This species was undescribed at the time Veloso prepared it. Three species of Western Atlantic Muraenids have a similar color pattern to this specimen, namely Gymnothorax miliaris , Gymnothorax nigromarginatus , and Muraena retifera . However, only the latter reaches more than 70 cm in length. The specimen was originally classified as “P. Ap. Muraena ” on the herbarium sheet. While specimens of Muraena were not mentioned in the inventory of the Ajuda’s cabinet ( Ferreira 1794) or the transference list to the Lisbon Academy of Sciences, one specimen (not found) is mentioned in the transference list to Coimbra. In Ichthyologia Fluminensis, Veloso provides a brief description of Muraena helena Linnaeus 1758 , which could correspond to the aforementioned specimen. Antunes & Balbino (2003) identified the specimen as Gymnothorax nigromarginatus (Girard 1858) . This species exhibits a wide distribution in coastal areas of the Western Atlantic, occurring from North Carolina ( USA) to Uruguay ( Böhlke & Smith 2003; Nion et al. 2016).

Order Clupeiformes

Figures

FIGURE 11. Muraena retifera Goode & Bean, 1882, ACL-HN-0060, 780 mm SL. Photo by Luis M. P. Ceríaco.