Biogeography 12.
119–125. Aug. 20, 2010

Description of Pseudanthias rubrolineatus (Serranidae: Anthiinae) Collectedfrom Take-shima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, Southern Japan
Hiroyuki Motomura1*, Shin-ichi Dewa2, Kazuhiko Furuta3 and Hiroshi Senou4
1
The Kagoshima University Museum, 1-21-30 Korimoto, Kagoshima, 890-0065 Japan
2
Diving Service “Umi-annai”, 7-7 Masagohommachi, Kagoshima, 890-0067 Japan
3
Diving School & Service “Umi-kobo”, 3-22-6 Shimoarata, Kagoshima, 890-0056 Japan
4
Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Natural History, 499 Iryuda, Odawara, Kanagawa, 250-0031 Japan

Abstract. Male and female specimens of Pseudanthias rubrolineatus, collected from 60 m depth off the south
coast of Point Ombo-saki, Take-shima Island, Osumi Group, Kagoshima, Japan, are described in detail. Although numerous underwater photographs of the species have been published from Japanese waters, no specimens have been reported since its original description from New Caledonia. A new Japanese name is proposed
for the species.
Keywords: Serranidae, Anthiinae, Pseudanthias rubrolineatus, morphology, Kagoshima, Japan.

Introduction
Species of the Indo-Paciﬁc serranid genus Pseudanthias occur on coral and rocky reefs in tropical andsubtropical areas. Although Randall and Pyle (2001)
regarded 52 species of Pseudanthias as valid, P. calloura Ida and Sakaue, 2001 and P. charleneae Allenand Erdmann, 2008 have been subsequently described,
and P. carlsoni Randall and Pyle, 2001 regarded as a
junior synonym of P. engelhardi (Allen and Starck,1982) (see Kuiter, 2004; Allen and Erdmann, 2008).
During an ichthyofaunal survey off Take-shima andIou-jima Islands in the Osumi Group, Kagoshima
Prefecture, southern Japan, from 24 to 30 May 2010,
led by Kagoshima University Museum and National
Museum of Nature and Science, two specimens (maleand female) of the poorly-known species Pseudanthias
rubrolineatus (Fourmanoir and Rivaton, 1979) werecollected at a depth of 60 m off Take-shima Island. The*
Corresponding author: motomura@kaum.kagoshima-u.
ac.jp

species was originally described on the basis of asingle specimen (MNHN 1978-686) collected at 400
m depth northwest of New Caledonia, and despite
numerous underwater photographs of individuals inJapanese waters (e.g., Kuiter, 2004; Kuiter and Debelius, 2006), no further morphological descriptions havebeen forthcoming. In this paper, detailed descriptionsof the morphology and coloration of the Take-shimaIsland specimens are given and a new Japanese nameproposed for the species.

Material and Methods
Counts and measurements followed Randall andPyle (2001) and Allen and Erdmann (2008). The lasttwo soft rays of the dorsal and anal ﬁns were counted
as single rays, each pair being associated with a single
pterygiophore. Caudal-ﬁn length is the horizontal lengthfrom the posterior edge of the hypural plate to a vertical through the tip of the uppermost ray; not included
ﬁlamentous rays. Standard length is expressed as SL.
The specimens of R. rubrolineatus from Take-shimaIsland, Japan are deposited at the Kagoshima Univer-– 119 –

Pseudanthias rubrolineatus from Take-shima Island, Japan

Fig. 1. Color photographs of fresh specimens of Pseudanthias rubrolineatus from Take-shima Island,
Kagoshima, Japan. a, KAUM–I. 29771, male, 92.2 mm SL; b, KAUM–I. 29772, female, 74.1mm SL.

sity Museum, Kagoshima, Japan (KAUM). Other institutional abbreviations used in the text are as follows:
Laboratory of Marine Biology, Faculty of Science,
Kochi University, Kochi (BSKU); Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Natural History, Odawara (KPM);
Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris (MNHN);
and Western Australian Museum of Natural Science,
Welshpool (WAM). The following specimens of P.
fasciatus were examined for comparative purposes:
KAUM–I. 29624, 63.3 mm SL, off west coast of Ioujima Island, Mishima, Kagoshima, Japan, 30˚47¢04²N,
130˚15¢42²E, 40–45 m depth, KAUM ﬁsh team, 28

May 2010; KAUM–I. 29790, 49.9 mm SL, off south
coast of Point Ombo-saki, Take-shima Island, Mishima,
Kagoshima, Japan, 30˚48¢32²N, 130˚2¢33²E, 60 m
depth, S. Dewa and K. Furuta, 27 May 2010.
Pseudanthias rubrolineatus(Fourmanoir and Rivaton, 1979)[English name: Thread-tail Basslet][New Japanese name: Itohiki-kohaku-hanadai](Fig. 1)
?Anthias georgei Allen, 1976: 28, ﬁg. 2 [type locality:– 120 –

Hiroyuki Motomura, Shin-ichi Dewa, Kazuhiko Furuta and Hiroshi Senou

Table 1. Proportional measurements of male and female specimens of Pseudanthias rubrolineatus, as
percentages of standard length.

Standard length (mm)Body depth
Body width
Head length
Snout length
Orbit diameter
Interorbital width
Caudal-peduncle depth
Caudal-peduncle length
Upper-jaw length
Predorsal-ﬁn length
Preanal-ﬁn length
Prepelvic-ﬁn length
Dorsal-ﬁn base length
Anal-ﬁn base length

KAUM–I.
29771
Male
92.2
33
17.3
31.2
7.9
10
9.6
14.2
17.8
14.4
29.6
67.8
36
60.5
16.8

KAUM–I.
KAUM–I.
29772
29771
Female
Male
74.1
37.9
Pectoral-ﬁn length28
18.8
Longest pelvic-ﬁn soft ray length
27.7
32.5
Pelvic-ﬁn spine length
15.9
7.3
First dorsal-ﬁn spine length
4.9
9.6
Second dorsal-ﬁn spine length
8.7
9.6
Third dorsal-ﬁn spine length
14.5
13.6
Last dorsal-ﬁn spine length
10.4
18.4
Longest dorsal-ﬁn soft ray length
16.1
15.5
First anal-ﬁn spine length
6.3
31.4
Second anal-ﬁn spine length
13.1
68.2
Third anal-ﬁn spine length
12.5
35.5
Longest anal-ﬁn soft ray length
21.9
61.7
Caudal-ﬁn length
29.8
18.9
Caudal concavity
12.6

about 40 nautical miles (74 km) west of BernierIsland, Western Australia, 24˚59¢S, 112˚27¢E].
Anthias rubrolineatus Fourmanoir and Rivaton, 1979:
413, ﬁg. 7 (type locality: Leleizour Island, northwestof New Caledonia).
Pseudanthias fasciatus (not of Kamohara): Heemstra
and Randall, 1999: 2470 (in part; list only).
Pseudanthias rubrolineatus: Randall and Pyle, 2001:
34 (listed as a valid name); Kuiter, 2004: 51, ﬁgs.
A–F (Izu-oshima Island and Kochi, Japan); Kuiterand Debelius, 2006: 296, unnumbered ﬁgs. (Japan).
Pseudanthias sp. cf. rubrolineatus: Yoshino, 2008: 123(Izu-oshima Island, unnumbered ﬁg.).
Material examined. KAUM–I. 29771, male, 92.2mm SL, off south coast of Point Ombo-saki, Takeshima Island, Mishima, Kagoshima, Japan, 30˚48¢32²N,
130˚24¢33²E, 60 m depth, S. Dewa and K. Furuta, 27
May 2010; KAUM–I. 29772, female, 74.1 mm SL,
collected with KAUM–I. 29771.
Description. Proportional measurements are given
as percentages of SL in Table 1. Dorsal-ﬁn rays X, 16;anal-ﬁn rays III, 7; pectoral-ﬁn rays 17 on each sideof body (16 on left side of body in KAUM–I. 29771);
pelvic-ﬁn rays I, 5; pored lateral-line scales 37–40;
scales above ﬁrst lateral-line scale to base of second
dorsal-ﬁn spine 6; scales above lateral line to base of

KAUM–I.
29772
Female
31.3
30.2
15.9
5.1
—
12.4
10.8
18.9
5.7
13.5
11.5
22.9
—
—

middle of spinous portion of dorsal ﬁn 3; scales below
lateral line to origin of anal ﬁn 15–16; circumpeduncular scales 22; gill rakers 10–11 + 25–26 = 35–37.
Mouth moderately large, posterior end of maxilla
just reaching to a vertical through middle of pupil;
mouth strongly oblique, forming an angle of 50–60
degrees to horizontal axis of head and body; lower jaw
slightly projecting; posterior margin of maxilla nearlystraight, corners rounded; front of upper lip ﬂeshy,
forming a small protuberance. A pair of widely separated, downward-projecting canine teeth at front ofupper jaw, followed by an outer row of slender conicalteeth (18 teeth in male and 15 female), more posterior
teeth forward-curved; an inner band of small slender
teeth. A pair (two pairs in female) of widely separated,
stout, laterally recurved canines at front of lower jaw,these canines just medial to upper canines when mouthclosed, tips of the recurved canines exposed whenmouth closed; 2 large recurved canines (1 in one sideof male) at each side of lower jaw about one-third
distance from lower jaw symphysis; a villiform teeth
band between anterior and posterior recurved canines;
no teeth on lower jaw posterior to posterior canines.
Vomer with a small triangular patch of villiform teeth
in about 2 rows. Palatines with a band of villiform teeth
in about 7–10 rows at its widest point. Tongue triangular and sharply pointed, upper surface with small– 121 –

Pseudanthias rubrolineatus from Take-shima Island, Japan

papillae. Gill rakers long and slender with a double
band of minute rigid projections on inner edge; longest
raker near angle much longer than longest gill ﬁlaments,and less than orbit diameter.
Anterior nostril membrane tube with skin ﬂap posteriorly, the ﬂap reaching posterior nostril when laidback; anterior nostril at level with upper margin of
pupil. Posterior nostril vertically elongate; a short skinﬂap at anterior margin of nostril, the ﬂap reaching
posterior margin of nostril when laid back; posterior
nostril between anterior nostril and anterodorsal margin of orbit. Opercle with 3 ﬂat spines, lower 2 spines
acute and tips exposed, upper spine with rounded tip
embedded in scales; middle spine largest, at level ofcenter of eye. Upper edge of preopercle with serrae(30 in male and 25 in female), progressively larger
ventrally, with serrae (6 in male and 3 in female) justbelow angle. Lower edge of subopercle with serrae (6in male and 3 in female); upper edge of interopercle
with serrae (8 in male and 5 in female).
Ctenoid scales on head and body, except for lips,
isthmus, and around snout region; no scales on pelvic
ﬁn and basal spinous portions of dorsal and anal ﬁns;
soft-rayed portions of dorsal and anal ﬁns with few
scales; caudal ﬁn nearly fully scaled; small scales onbasal half of pectoral ﬁn. Lateral line smoothly curved
approximately following contour of back.
Dorsal-ﬁn origin posterior to upper end of gill opening and just above upper end of pectoral-ﬁn base. Baseof soft-rayed portion of dorsal ﬁn longer than base ofspinous portion. Upper end of pectoral-ﬁn base slightly anterior to pelvic-ﬁn origin. Tip of depressed pelvic
ﬁn extending slightly beyond anus in male (reaching
to anus in female). Anal-ﬁn origin posterior to lastdorsal-ﬁn spine base. Third dorsal-ﬁn spine longest,
particularly in male; tip of the spine with a ﬁlament.
Thirteenth dorsal-ﬁn soft ray longest, longer than third
dorsal-ﬁn spine. Second anal-ﬁn spine longest. Caudal
ﬁn lunate, not deeply forked, with several ﬁlamentous
rays on upper and lower lobes.
Color when fresh. — Based on color photographs(Fig. 1): upper half of head and anterior body orange,
shading to yellow posteriorly; ventral part of body
pinkish; each scale on upper part of body with a yel-lowish green spot, that on middle part of body with ayellow spot. A narrow, curved red stripe from above
pectoral-ﬁn base to upper part of caudal peduncle atcaudal-ﬁn base; the stripe across lateral line below baseof ﬁfth or sixth dorsal-ﬁn soft ray. A narrow, pale pink
stripe from upper lip through below orbit to lower partof pectoral-ﬁn base; a narrow reddish stripe from tipof snout to anterior margin of orbit; a broad pale yellow
band from snout to pectoral-ﬁn base between the pink
and reddish stripes; area below the pink stripe yellowish. Iris yellow with red stripe ventrally. Dorsal ﬁntranslucent yellow with lavender margin, red to orange
basally with irregular yellow spots. Pectoral ﬁn translucent white. Pelvic ﬁn translucent pink to red, without
markings. Anal ﬁn translucent yellow, with pinkishbasally; anteroventral margin of the ﬁn lavender. Caudal ﬁn orange to red, shading to translucent yellow
posteriorly; lavender-edged yellow margin on eachlobes; caudal-ﬁn ﬁlaments yellow.
Remarks. The present specimens from Take-shimaIsland agree with the original description and ﬁgureof the holotype (MNHN 1978-686, 26.5 mm) of Anthias rubrolineatus (= Pseudanthias rubrolineatus) inFourmanoir and Rivaton (1979), and underwater photographs of the species in Kuiter (2004) and Kuiterand Debelius (2006), with the exception of some counts;
e.g., 16 or 17 pectoral-ﬁn rays (versus 18 in the holotype) (Fourmanoir and Rivaton, 1979); 37–40 pored
lateral-line scales (versus 42); and 25 or 26 gill rakers
on the lower limb (versus 24). These small differences
may simply reﬂect the limited overall number of specimens available.
Pseudanthias rubrolineatus can be easily distinguished from all other congeners, except P. georgei(Allen, 1976), by the caudal ﬁn having several prolonged
ﬁlaments in both sexes. Pseudanthias georgei, originally described as Anthias georgei by Allen (1976) on
the basis of three specimens (holotype, WAM P. 25205001, 79.5 mm SL; 2 paratypes, WAM P.25205-002,
29.0–32.8 mm SL) from a depth of 71 fathoms (ca.
130 m) off Bernier Island, Western Australia, Indian
Ocean, has subsequently been regarded as a valid species (Randall and Pyle, 2001; Hutchins, 2001; Allenet al., 2006) with prolonged caudal-ﬁn ﬁlaments (Al-– 122 –

Hiroyuki Motomura, Shin-ichi Dewa, Kazuhiko Furuta and Hiroshi Senou

Fig. 2. Color photograph of a fresh specimen of Pseudanthias fasciatus from Take-shima Island,
Kagoshima, Japan. KAUM–I. 29790, 49.9 mm SL, collected with P. rubrolineatus.

len, 1976). However, Allen’s (1976) description was
based on preserved specimens, the fresh and/or live
coloration of the species being unknown, althoughcolor is most important for the identiﬁcation of speciesof Pseudanthias as Randall and Pyle (2001) and Ida
and Sakaue (2001) pointed out. Furthermore, no additional specimens or underwater photographs of P.
georgei have been recorded since the original description. Therefore, taxonomic characters of P. georgei andrelationships between P. georgei and P. rubrolineatus
have remained unclear. Although Randall and Pyle
(2001) treated both species as valid, they did not give
diagnostic characters for each, and although Kuiter(2004) also regarded P. rubrolineatus as valid, he appended “(P. rubrolineatus) appears to be identical to
Anthias georgei, a possible senior synonym” to theformer species account. In addition, neither additional
specimens nor photographs of P. rubrolineatus fromthe western central Paciﬁc, including the type locality,
have been recorded. Therefore, any taxonomic decision
regarding the two nominal species should await thecollection of additional specimens and documentationof coloration. There remains also the possibility that
the Japanese population is an undescribed species,
closely related to P. rubrolineatus and/or P. georgei.
Pseudanthias rubrolineatus is similar to P. fasciatus(Kamohara, 1954) in having a distinct, blue- or white-

edged reddish longitudinal stripe on the mid-lateralsurface of the body [thus, Heemstra and Randall (1999)
mistakenly treated P. rubrolineatus as a junior synonymof P. fasciatus]. However, the blue- or white-edged
reddish stripe of P. rubrolineatus extends posteriorly
above the lateral line at the caudal-ﬁn base (middle ofupper half of caudal-ﬁn base; Fig. 1), whereas that of
P. fasciatus extends onto the lateral line (near middleof caudal-ﬁn base; Fig. 2). In large male P. fasciatus
the stripe becomes indistinct or absent during courtship(Kuiter, 2004). In addition, the reddish stripe of P.
rubrolineatus is narrower than that of P. fasciatus (seeFigs. 1–2). The upper and lower lobes of the caudal ﬁnin P. rubrolineatus are not prolonged, although having
several ﬁlamentous rays (Fig. 1), and the ﬁn lunate
rather than deeply forked. The caudal-ﬁn lobes of P.
fasciatus, however, are extremely prolonged, although
without ﬁlamentous rays (Fig. 2), the ﬁn being deeply
forked.
Pseudanthias rubrolineatus is likely to be widelydistributed in the western Paciﬁc Ocean (and in theeastern Indian Ocean if P. georgei is identical with P.
rubrolineatus). However, collected examples of thespecies are known only from New Caledonia (Fourmanoir and Rivaton, 1979) and Japan (this study).
Underwater photographs of the species are also limited, having been published only from Japanese waters– 123 –

Pseudanthias rubrolineatus from Take-shima Island, Japanin depths of 40–55 m (Kuiter, 2004; Kuiter and Debelius, 2006; Yoshino, 2008 as P. sp. cf rubrolineatus).
Notwithstanding, numerous underwater photographsof the species taken by scuba divers in Japanese waters
have been uploaded to internet web sites, indicatingthat the species occurs along the Paciﬁc coast of southern Japan, and the Izu and Ogasawara Islands. Twenty
one underwater photographs taken from Izu Peninsula (Futo and Osezaki), the Izu Islands (Izu-oshimaIsland), the Ogasawara Islands (Chichi-jima Island),and the Tokara Islands (Yokoate-jima Island) are registered in the Image Database of Fishes at KPM. The
fourth author identiﬁed the following four specimens
as P. rubrolineatus (although not available to this study):
BSKU 79057, 40.7 mm SL, Shimizu Port, Tosa-shimizu,
Kochi, Japan, 8 m, H. Morita, June 10 2006; KPM–NI
11561, 19.8 mm SL, off Yome-jima Island, Muko-jimaIslands, Ogasawara Islands, from stomach of Epinephelus fasciatus from 70 m, O. Morishita, Sept. 2002;
KPM–NI 11581, 17.9 mm SL, KPM–NI 11582, 28.6mm SL, Tatsumi Bay, Chichi-jima Island, Ogasawara
Islands, 45 m, O. Morishita, Dec. 2001.
‘Itohiki-kohaku-hanadai’ meaning ‘thread-amberbasslet’ is herein proposed as the new standard Japanesename for the present specimens of P. rubrolineatus.
The two Take-shima Island specimens were collectedby the second and third authors from ﬁve individuals
forming a harem, the former being the two largest
individuals. The species was noted as usually forminga harem with ﬁve or six individuals frequenting areasof large rocks scattered on graveled slopes in depthsof 55–80 m at Take-shima Island, Kagoshima.

Acknowledgements
We are especially grateful to H. Sato, H. Sato, K.
Kajiwara, K. Tokuda, S. Hiwatashi and T. Yasunaga(Mishima, Kagoshima, Japan) and K. Matsuura (National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo) for theirkind support of our Take-shima and Iou-jima Islands
survey. We thank Y. Haraguchi, M. Ito, Y. Ikoma andother volunteers of KAUM for their curatorial assistance,
and G. Ogihara, M. Matsunuma, M. Meguro, T. Yoshida, M. Yamashita, Y. Ohashi, R. Ohta and H. Iwat-

subo (KAUM) for their assistance during the above
survey, which was conducted as part of the Kuroshio
Project (National Museum of Nature and Science,
Tokyo) and Kagoshima Fish Diversity Project (KAUM).
The fourth author (HS) thank O. Morishita (URASHIMAN, Chichijima, Ogasawara, Tokyo), and H. Endo
(BSKU) and H. Morita (Oceanic Planning Corporation,
Tokyo) for making specimens from the Ogasawara
Islands and Kochi, respectively, available to HS. We
greatly appreciated comments on the manuscript by
G. S. Hardy (Ngunguru, New Zealand). This study was
supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for ScientiﬁcResearch (A) from the Japan Society for the Promotionof Science, Tokyo (19208019), a Grant-in-Aid forYoung Scientists (B) from the Ministry of Education,
Science, Sports and Culture, Tokyo (19770067), anda Grant-in-Aid from the National Museum of Natureand Science, Tokyo.

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– 125 –

(Accepted 1 July, 2010)