RESEARCH ARTICLE
Chrysiptera caesifrons, a new species of damselfish (Pomacentridae)
from the south-western Pacific Ocean
Gerald R. Allen, Mark V.
Erdmann & Eka M. Kurniasih
Abstract
Chrysiptera caesifrons
is described on the basis of 23 type specimens, 23.3–48.5
mm SL, from the Raja Ampat Islands (West Papua Province),
Indonesia, and 184 additional non-types, 17.8–60.7
mm SL, from Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia,
and the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. Additional
records based on photographic evidence and underwater
observations include Halmahera and the Solomon Islands.
The new species is closely allied to C. rex
from the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, Palau, eastern Indonesia
(eastern Kalimantan and Java eastward), Timor Leste,
Raja Ampat Islands (off western extremity of New Guinea),
and offshore reefs of Western Australia, as well as
to C. chrysocephala from the South China Sea
region and Sulawesi. Although the new species was
previously confused with C. rex, it is clearly
separable from both sibling species on the basis of
colour pattern and from C. rex by a 6.4% difference
(average pairwise distance) in the mitochondrial control
region DNA sequence and from C. chrysocephala
by a 4.3% difference (K2P minimum interspecific distance)
in the barcode COI mtDNA sequence.
|
CITATION:
Allen, G.R., Erdmann M.V.
& Kurniasih, E.M. (2015) Chrysiptera caesifrons,
a new species of damselfish (Pomacentridae) from the
south-western Pacific Ocean. Journal of the Ocean
Science Foundation, 15, 16-32.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.891445
publication date: 9 May 2015
|