Gymnothorax pindae Smith 1962

Smith, David G., Bogorodsky, Sergey V., Mal, Ahmad O. & Alpermann, Tilman J., 2019, Review of the moray eels (Anguilliformes: Muraenidae) of the Red Sea, with description of a new species, Zootaxa 4704 (1), pp. 1-87 : 49

Gymnothorax pindae Smith 1962 —Pinda Moray

( Figure 32 )

Gymnothorax pindae Smith 1962: 430 , pl. 55 (fig. D) (Pinda, Mozambique). Holotype (unique), SAIAB 105.— Randall & Golani 1995: 865; Golani & Bogorodsky 2010: 10; Golani & Fricke 2018: 22.

Red Sea material. Red Sea: USNM 191669 (1, 251). Egypt: USNM 312698 (4, 145–210), El Himeira, Gulf of Aqaba. Saudi Arabia: KAUMM 405 [ KAU 12-1088] (1, 127), Al Lith; KAUMM 406 [ KAU 13-489] (1, 222), Al Wajh; KAUMM 407 [ KAU 13-596] (1, 104), Duba; KAUMM 408 ( KAU 14-993), (1, 162), Al Lith; KAUMM 414 [ KAU 13-692] (1, 103), Jeddah, Obhur; SMF 35169 (1, 340), Duba; SMF 35398 [ KAU 13-352] (1, 323), Al Wajh; SMF 35818 [ KAU 12-1027] (1, 210), Al Lith; SMF 35819 [ KAU 13-447] (1, 304), Al Wajh; SMF 35820 [ KAU 13- 595] (1, 198), Duba; SMF 35827 [ KAU 13-693] (1, 252), Jeddah, Obhur.

Comparative material. Mauritius: USNM 312725 (1, 99). Philippines: USNM 315563 (1, 144). Vanuatu: USNM 363336 (2, 50–146); USNM 363689 (1, 258). French Polynesia, Mururoa: USNM 408155 (1, 153). Manua’e (Scilly) I.: USNM 435224 [SCIL-335] (1, 114). Hawaii: BPBM 37447 (1, 285).

Description. In TL: preanal length 2.2–2.5, predorsal length 6.6–11, head length 6.5–8.3, body depth at anus 15–24. In head length: snout length 4.1–6.8, eye diameter 6.8–11, upper-jaw length 2.2–3.2. Pores: LL 2, SO 3, IO 4, POM 6. Vertebrae: predorsal 5–6 (1 specimen with 10), preanal 42–44, total 118–123.

Body moderately stout; anus before midlength; dorsal-fin origin before gill opening. Dorsal and anal fins high, dorsal fin height up to half body depth. Snout relatively short and tapering, jaws of equal length. Eye moderate, over middle of upper jaw. Anterior nostril long and tubular, reaching edge of lip when depressed; posterior nostril above anterior margin of eye.

Intermaxillary teeth in a single peripheral series, 6–7 on each side, triangular, increasing in size posteriorly; 1–3 median teeth, long, conical. Maxillary teeth uniserial in larger specimens, biserial in smaller specimens, which have a few large inner teeth anteriorly. Dentary with 1–3 larger inner teeth anteriorly, an outer row of smaller teeth, decreasing in size posteriorly. Larger teeth anteriorly in jaws serrate. Vomerine teeth uniserial or slightly staggered, small and inconspicuous.

Color: medium to dark brown, becoming nearly black posteriorly on tail and fins, with an indistinct marbled pattern of lighter brown separated by obscure darker interspaces on body and basally in the dorsal fin; often obscure horizontal lines on branchial area and anterior body. Anterior nostril dark brown. Iris yellow, margin of eye darker brown, wider posteriorly.

Maximum size about 400 mm.

Distribution and habitat. Throughout the Indo-Pacific from the Red Sea and east coast of Africa to the Society Islands and Hawaiian Islands. Usually found in shallow lagoon reefs and from fringing reefs in depth range 2– 43 m.

Remarks. This species has been confused in the past with other plain brown morays. Schultz (1953: 113) misidentified it as Gymnothorax moluccensis and G. monochrous (see Randall & McCosker 1975: 17–18). Randall & Golani (1995: 865) reported vertebral counts of 130–135 for three specimens from Midway, but these specimens (presumably SIO 68-498 as reported by Randall & McCosker 1975: 17) are most probably Gymnothorax atolli (Pietschmann) , a species that was not recognized until later. Böhlke & Randall (2000: 249) reported the range of vertebral counts as 110–124, but we have examined specimens from all corners of the Indo-Pacific and found no confirmed counts lower than 118. We suspect that the figure of 110 is either an error or based on a damaged specimen. There appears to be a considerable high level of intraspecific genetic variation. Two of the Red Sea specimens collected in this study (KAUMM 414 and SMF 34818) fall apart from the others on the COI phylogeny ( Fig. 48 ). The majority of sequences derived from Red Sea specimens, however, fall into a subclade with specimens from the South Pacific ( New Caledonia and Society Islands). The divergence between the two genetic subgroups is as prominent as that among sub-groups in G. javanicus (see above), but as in that case, we can find no morphological characters that separate them, and we cannot explain the significance of the observed genetic divergence. No closely related species can be identified from the present phylogeny for G. pindae ( Fig. 48 ).

Figures

FIGURE 32. Gymnothorax pindae. A: SMF 35818 [KAU12-1027], 210 mm TL, fresh specimen, Al Lith, SaudiArabia; B: SMF 35819 [KAU13-447], 304 mm TL, alive, Al Wajh, Saudi Arabia. Photos by S.V. Bogorodsky.

FIGURE 48. Unrooted maximum likelihood phylogeny of Indo-Pacific moray eels (Muraenidae) based on partial mitochondrial COI. Branch support values were obtained by 100 bootstrapped replicates; only bootstrap values above 50 percent are shown. The scale bar represents average number of nucleotide substitutions. (A) = specimen sequenced in this study; (B) = sequence retrieved from BOLD; (C) sequence retrieved from CRIOBE; (G) = sequence retrieved from GenBank; (R) = sequence retrieved from Reece et al. (2010); (ID) = species ID re-assigned herein; (ID-H) = specimen re-assigned as of Huang et al. (2019); (SAU) = collected in Saudi Arabia; (ISR) = collected in Israel.