FOUR NEW SERRANID FISHES OF THE GENUS EPINEPHELUS (PERCIFORMES EPINEPHELINAE) FROM WESTERN AUSTRALIA

WA Museum Records and Supplements | Updated 1 decade ago

Abstract
Four new species of serranid fishes are described from northern Western Australia. Epinephelus stictus is named from six specimens (four from the South China Sea) collected by trawling. It is similar to E. diacanthus Valenciennes and E. sexfasciatus Valenciennes with which it shares two greatly enlarged serrae at the corner of the preopercle; E. stictus is distinctive in having numerous dark brown dots dorsally on the head and anterodorsally on the body. E. tim orensis (one specimen) and E. trophis (two specimens) were obtained from 130 m at the base of an experimental drilling rig at Dillon Shoals in the Timor Sea. E. timorensis was blue-grey with yellow spots on the head and body and faint dark spots posteriorly on the body, caudal fin, and soft portions of the dorsal and anal fins. E. trophis is distinctive in its high lateral-line scale count (67-69), deep body (depth 2.45 in SL) and uniform brown colour. E. bilobatus is represented by five specimens taken off Western Australia between latitudes 16 and 21° S; it is closely related to the dark spotted, Western Pacific E. maculatus (Bloch), differing in usually having 16 instead of 17 dorsal soft rays, fewer scales in longitudinal series, fewer gill rakers, and in its possession of three, large, bilobed, dark brown spots or close-set pairs of spots along the base of the dorsal fin.