Biogeography 11.
135–137. Aug. 20, 2009

Second Specimen of the Costa Rican scorpionfish, Scorpaena cocosensis(Scorpaenidae): the First Record from the Galápagos Islands,with Fresh Color Notes on the Species
Hiroyuki Motomura1* and John E. McCosker2
1 The Kagoshima University Museum, 1-21-30 Korimoto, Kagoshima 890-0065, Japan
2 California Academy of Sciences, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA 94118, USA

Abstract. A single specimen (90.9 mm standard length) of a scorpionfish, Scorpaena cocosensis Motomura,previously known only from the holotype from the Cocos Islands, Costa Rica, was collected by the manned
submersible Johnson Sea-Link off Darwin Island, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador. The Galápagos specimen represents the second specimen of the species and an approximate 800 km southwestward range extension fromthe previously known locality. A color photograph of S. cocosensis when fresh is provided here for the firsttime.
Key words: Scorpaenidae; Scorpaena cocosensis; distribution; Galápagos Islands; fresh coloration.

Introduction
Scorpaena cocosensis was originally described byMotomura (2004) on the basis of a single specimen
collected from off the Cocos Islands, Costa Rica,eastern Pacific Ocean, at a depth of ca. 57–92 m.
Subsequently a single specimen was collected by themanned submersible Johnson Sea-Link off Darwin
Island, Galápagos, at a depth of 72 m. The specimen
is herein identified as S. cocosensis and represents
the second specimen of the species and a considerable extension of its range. Motomura’s (2004)
description was based on the long-preserved specimen and the fresh coloration of the species has until
now been unknown. The first color description of S.
cocosensis is provided here, based on a photographof the Galápagos specimen taken before preservation.
Counts and measurements followed Motomura(2004). The last two soft rays of the dorsal and anal
fins were counted as single rays, each pair being*Corresponding author: motomura@kaum.kagoshima-u.
ac.jp

associated with a single pterygiophore. Pectoral-fin
ray counts begin with the uppermost element. Standard length is expressed as SL. The specimen isdeposited at the California Academy of Sciences, San
Francisco (CAS), and data for which is as follows:
CAS 86522, 90.9 mm SL, off Darwin Island,Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, 01°40′N, 92°00′W, 72
m depth, sand patch bottom, collected by J. E.
McCosker et al., 22 November 1995.

Results and Discussion
The Galápagos specimen (CAS 86522, 90.9 mmSL) is identified here as Scorpaena cocosensis on thebasis of the following combination of characters:
dorsal-fin soft rays 8; well-exposed scales covering
anteroventral body surface; interorbital ridges moderately developed, beginning just behind nasal spines,diverging anteriorly and posteriorly in dorsal view;lateral margins of frontals diverging posteriorly indorsal view; occipital pit shallow with distinct transverse ridge in front of pit; posterior lacrimal spine
directed ventroanteriorly; suborbital ridge with a− 135 −Scorpaena cocosensis from the Galápagos Islands

Fig. 1. Scorpaena cocosensis from Galápagos Islands (CAS 86552, 90.9 mm SL). a) specimen photographed soon after capture (J. E. McCosker); b) preserved specimen (H. Motomura).

small spine below eye; lateral lacrimal spine absent;
supplemental preopercular spine absent; second preopercular spine reduced; upper posttemporal spine
directed upward; and posterior margin of maxilla
just reaching level of posterior margin of pupil.
These characters of the present specimen agreed
with all diagnostic characters of S. cocosensis given
by Motomura (2004), with the exception of 21 pectoral-fin rays on both side of the body in theGalápagos specimen (vs. 22 in the holotype of S.
cocosensis) and the posterior tip of pectoral finreaching a vertical through the origin of the second
dorsal-fin soft ray (vs. third soft ray). These small
differences may simply reflect the limited number ofspecimens available. Detailed comparisons of thespecies with other congeners were given in Motomua (2004: 821–823).
Other minor differences between the Galápagos

specimen and holotype of S. cocosensis include: 23
pored lateral-line scales in the Galápagos specimen(vs. scales lost on the caudal peduncle and estimatedas ca. 25 in the holotype); third pelvic-fin soft ray
longest (vs. second); the suborbital ridge with twospines, the first spine below the eye and second spineat the end of the ridge (vs. lacking a spine at the endof the ridge); and the posterior tip of the depressed
pelvic fin just reaching anus (vs. extending slightly
beyond anus). The last two characters seem to be
growth-related differences because the holotype andGalápagos specimen are 62.0 and 90.9 mm SL,
respectively, and head spines generally develop withgrowth and fin rays become relatively shorter withgrowth in scorpionfishes.
Meristics and morphometrics (expressed as percentage of SL) of the Galápagos specimen are given
as follows: Dorsal fin XII, 8; anal fin III, 5; pectoral− 136 −Hiroyuki Motomura and John E. McCosker

fin rays 22, upper 2 rays and lower 14 rays
unbranched, remaining rays branched; pelvic fin I, 5;
longitudinal scale rows 46; pored lateral-line scales
23; scale rows between origin of sixth dorsal spine
and lateral line 5; scale rows between origin of lastdorsal spine and lateral line 5; scales above lateralline 2; scales below lateral line 15; gill rakers on
upper limb 4, lower limb (including a raker at angle)
7, no rakers on hypobranchial; branchiostegal rays 7;
body depth 30.9; body width 21.9; head length 45.0;
snout length 10.6; orbit diameter 16.6; interorbital
width 5.1; interorbital width between supraocularspine bases 5.3; upper-jaw length 26.1; maxillary
depth 6.4; postorbital length 20.4; predorsal length
39.2; preanal length 68.4; prepelvic length 40.2; firstdorsal-fin spine length 6.1; second dorsal-fin spine
length 9.0; third dorsal-fin spine length 12.7;
eleventh dorsal-fin spine length 8.8; twelfth dorsal-fin
spine length 12.3; longest dorsal-fin soft ray (second)
length 19.6; first and third anal-fin spines damaged;
second anal-fin spine length 12.0; longest anal-fin
soft ray (second) length 18.6; longest pectoral-fin ray(seventh) length 34.1; pelvic-fin spine length 13.5;
longest pelvic-fin soft ray (third) length 21.0; caudalfin length 29.2; caudal-peduncle length 18.9; caudalpeduncle depth 9.9.
A color photograph of the fresh Galápagos specimen is provided here as Fig. 1a. The specimen has a
reddish body, mottled with whitish blotches, without
distinct black stripes, bands, or blotches; dark reddish
spots scattered on opercle; pectoral-fin tip blackish;
two dense red broad bands obliquely cross soft-rayed
portions of dorsal fin; two red bands vertically crosson caudal fin. Motomura (2004) said “the soft rayed
portion of the dorsal fin in S. cocosensis is white,lacking melanophores. However, I could not determine whether spots or blotches had initially beenpresent on the fin of S. cocosensis and had subsequently faded because of long-term preservation(specimen collected in 1938)”, but the species is now
revealed to have two red bands on the soft-rayed
portion of the dorsal fin. Accordingly, S. cocosensis
and two closely related species, S. russula Jordan andBollman, 1890 and S. sonorae Jenkins and Evermann,

1889 (see Motomura, 2004), can be distinguishedfrom each other by the color pattern of the soft-rayed
portion of the dorsal fin (irregular rows of small
spots on the fin in S. russula and a large blotch,
approximately equal to the pupil diameter, in S.
sonorae; Allen and Robertson, 1994; Poss, 1995).
Scorpaena cocosensis was known only from theholotype from off the Cocos Islands, eastern Pacific
Ocean (Motomura, 2004). The present specimen
from the Galápagos Islands represents the secondand largest specimen of the species and an approximate 800 km southwestward range extension fromits type locality.

Acknowledgments
The second author would like to thank the crewof the Harbor Branch vessel Seward Johnson and itssubmersible, the Johnson Sea-Link, as well as theParque Nacional Galápagos for permission to study
in Ecuador. This study was supported in part by aGrant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) by the Ministryof Education, Science, Sports and Culture, Japan(19770067).

Literature Cited
Allen, G. R. & Robertson, D. R. 1994. Fishes of thetropical eastern Pacific. Crawford House Press,Bathurst.
Motomura, H. 2004. New species of scorpionfish,
Scorpaena cocosensis (Scorpaeniformes: Scorpaenidae) from the Cocos Islands, Costa Rica,eastern Pacific Ocean. Copeia, 2004 (4): 818–824.
Poss, S. G. 1995. Scorpaenidae. In Fischer, W.,
Krupp, F., Schneider, W., Sommer, C., Carpenter,K. E. & Niem, V. H. (Eds), Guı´a FAO para laidentificacio´n de especies para los fines de lapesca: Pacifico centro-oriental, vol 3. 1544–1564
pp. FAO, Rome.

− 137 −(Accepted July 14, 2009)