A new species of Buenia (Teleostei: Gobiidae) from the western Mediterranean Sea, with the description of this genus

Abstract

A new miniature gobiid species, Buenia massutii sp. nov. (Teleostei: Gobiidae) is described from the circalittoral bottom off the Balearic Islands, western Mediterranean. Phylogenetic analysis of the mitochondrial COI-barcoding fragment supports its species-level distinctiveness and the monophyly of the genus Buenia. A description and diagnosis of the genus Buenia is for the first time provided. Material of the new species was collected in 57-67 m depth from beam trawl samples carried out on red algae beds. The traits that differentiate the new species from two congeneric species are: anterior oculoscapular canal only semiclosed with pores σ, λ, κ, ω, α, ρ and additional pores and open furrows from interorbital part to pore ρ; posterior oculoscapular canal absent; suborbital row c with 5 papillae; scales in lateral series 26-28; pectoral fin rays 16; the second spine of the first dorsal fin the longest, reaching to or behind posterior end of the second dorsal fin in males when folded down; pelvic fin anterior membrane one sixth or less of length of spinous ray in midline depth; head length 31.2-32.5% of standard length; eye 32.8-35.7% of head length; caudal fin length 21.5-24.0% of standard length.

The confirmed and continuous northern distribution of Thorogobius ephippiatus (Teleostei: Gobiidae) with the scientific use of recreational fishing data

“…The material is deposited in the Prirodoslovni muzej Rijeka (PMR). The morphological diagnosis is a minimum combination of characters that positively identify fresh or preserved specimens of T. ephippiatus among species of family Gobiidae in the CLOFNAM area (Kovačić, Ordines, & Schliewen, ; Kovačić & Patzner, ; Miller, and references therein). Terminology of lateral‐line system follows Miller ().…”

Identifying sagittal otoliths of Mediterranean Sea gobies: variability among phylogenetic lineages

“…Malavasi et al (2012) used behavioural and life history data to build a phylogeny for the European gobiid lineages and Kramer et al (2012) studied the potential for teeth to inform phylogenetic relationships of European gobiids. Gobiidae is the most species-rich fish family both in the Mediterranean Sea and among marine fishes more generally, with numbers of described gobiid species constantly increasing (Kovačić et al, , 2017. Gobies play an important ecological role in coastal ecosystems because of their diversity and abundance (Zander, 2011), but their significance is often underestimated because they are small, benthic and cryptically coloured, making them easy to overlook (Patzner et al, 2011;Glavičić et al, 2016).…”

The first Adriatic finding of Speleogobius llorisi (Actinopterygii: Gobiiformes: Gobiidae)

“…The data on lateral line system provided in the original description (Kovačić et al 2016) were amended by the details from the intact new material. Anterior dorsal rows of sensory papillae, presented as more reduced in the original description, are usually first to be lost or not possible to be seen in damaged material descriptions (Kovačić et al 2017, Engin et al 2017. The species diagnosis was modified in the colouration character by live colouration of both sexes and by the expanded range of the head length.…”

“…The collecting of small cryptic fishes at circalittoral bottoms is restricted to two methods: trawling with fishing nets of fine mesh size, like beam trawl (Kovačić et al 2016) for soft sediment or collecting by divers using trimix diving since circalittoral depths are below the safe limit of compressed-air diving for hard bottoms (Glavičić and Kovačić 2016). Sampling with a beam trawl results in small fish being pressed inside the net by hard structured bycatch during trawling, and delicate morphological structure on the fish surface (e.g., scales, fin membranes, fin rays, lateral line system) are lost or damaged (see notes on damages in the description part of Kovačić et al 2016Kovačić et al , 2017. The collection of small fish specimens by divers is clearly advantageous for the study of morphological traits since those damages are avoided, and whenever possible, considering species abundance and chance to find it, the method should be expanded also on the soft sediments.…”