Upeneus mouthami Randall & Kulbicki 2006
Creators: name: Uiblein, Franz
name: Gledhill, Daniel C.
name: Pavlov, Dimitri A.
name: Hoang, Tuan Anh
name: Shaheen, Shaker
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Actinopterygii
Perciformes
Mullidae
Upeneus
Upeneus mouthami

description: Upeneus mouthami Randall & Kulbicki, 2006
Mou Tham’s goatfish
(Figures 1, 7, 12; Tables 2, 5, 6, 9)
Upeneus mouthami Randall & Kulbicki, 2006. Type locality Chesterfield Bank, Coral Sea, New Caledonia, Chesterfield Islands.
Holotype. (only fresh-colour photo examined). BPBM 33858, adult, 70 mm SL, Coral Sea, New Caledonia, Chesterfield Islands, Chesterfield Bank, 20°59’48’’ S, 158°47’18’’ E, RV Alis, beam trawl, 71 m depth.
Paratypes. (4 adults: 73–94 mm SL). Coral Sea, New Caledonia, Chesterfield Islands: BPBM 33855, 94 mm SL, Chesterfield Bank, 20°51’0’’ S, 158°45’00’’ E, RV Alis, shrimp trawl, 71 m depth; BPBM 39467, 88 mm SL, Chesterfield Bank, Bellona Reefs, 21°24’54’’ S, 159°09’18’’ E, RV Coriolis, beam trawl, 60 m depth; MNHN 2004- 1571, 73 mm SL, and USNM 378143, 81 mm SL, Chesterfield Bank, north side, 19°12’23’’ S, 158°42’02’’ E, RV Coriolis, beam trawl, 68 m depth.
Non-types. (4 subadults: 46–55 mm SL, 2 fresh-colour photos): Vanuatu, NO Alis, chalut à perche: MNHN
2008-1459, 46 mm SL, Espirito Santo Island, 15°31.68′S, 167°10.80′E, 36–43 m depth (fresh-colour photo); MNHN 2010-0616, 51 mm SL, NW Malo Island, 15°39.90′S, 167°03.78′E, 114–132 m depth; MNHN 2019-0026, 1 of 3, 55 mm SL, 15°37.98′S, 167°03′E, 140–175 m depth (wrongly referred to as MNHN 2002-0070 in Uiblein et al. 2016); MNHN 2019-0027, 1 of 4, 49 mm SL, Malo Island, Bruat Channel, 15°37.32′S, 167°09.60′E, 52–66 m depth (fresh-colour photo).
Diagnosis. Dorsal fins VIII + 9, the first spine minute; pectoral fins 12–13; gill rakers 6–7 + 17–18 = 23–25; lateral-line scales 29–30; measurements in % SL, adults: body depth at first dorsal-fin origin 21–24; body depth at anus 19–21; caudal-peduncle depth 9.1–10; caudal-peduncle width 3.2–3.9; maximum head depth 20–21; head depth through eye 17–18; suborbital depth 9.0–11; interorbital length 7.6–8.1; head length 29–30; snout length 11–12; postorbital length 11–12; orbit length 7.8–8.8; upper-jaw length 9.3–11; barbel length 20–22; interdorsal distance 12–16; caudal-peduncle length 21–24; caudal-fin length 27–29; anal-fin height 17–19; pelvic-fin length 22–23; pectoral-fin length 22–23; pectoral-fin width 4.0–4.3; first dorsal-fin height 20–21; second dorsal-fin height 17–19; measurements in % SL, subadults: body depth at first dorsal-fin origin 21–23; body depth at anus 18–20; caudal-peduncle depth 9.1–10; caudal-peduncle width 3.0–3.5; maximum head depth 19–21; head depth through eye 15–16; suborbital depth 7.5–9.2; interorbital length 7.0–7.6; head length 30–32; snout length 10–12; postorbital length 11–13; orbit length 8.4–9.1; upper-jaw length 9.7–12; barbel length 21–23; interdorsal distance 13–14; caudal-peduncle length 23–26; caudal-fin length 30–31; anal-fin height 16–17; pelvic-fin length 22–23; pectoral-fin length 21–22; pectoral-fin width 3.5–3.8; first dorsal-fin height 19–22; second dorsal-fin height 19–20; fresh colour: head and body dorsally orange red or grey mottled, ventrally white rose or silvery, in adults covered with red blotches along ventral margin; caudal fin with 6 dark brown or black oblique bars on both lobes; on upper caudalfin lobe 3 dark brown bars, on lower lobe 3 black bars, in adults the distal-most bar twice as wide as other bars; on both lobes hyaline interspaces mostly larger than bars; mid-laterally on caudal-fin base a brown spot both in adults and subadults; barbels yellow; a single yellow mid-lateral body stripe of pupil width from behind head to caudal peduncle; no dark dots on stripe, dark saddle behind second dorsal fin lacking or only weakly expressed; first dorsal fin with pale green pigmentation, tip pale white, often with closely fused pale-red or pale-grey brown stripes; second dorsal fin with up to 3 brown-red or grey stripes with whitish hyaline interspaces; preserved fish pale, mid-lateral stripe completely lost, yellow barbel colour sometimes retained (Figure 7 G), with remains of dark pigmentation deriving from caudal-fin bars and second dorsal-fin distal stripe or, more rarely, from saddle.
Distribution, habitat and size. Coral Sea, New Caledonia, Chesterfield Islands and Vanuatu off Malo and Spiritu Santo Islands; 36–175 m depth, muddy bottoms, adults occur shallower than juveniles; maximum size 9.5 cm SL.
Intraspecific comparisons. Subadults differ from adults in shallower head, narrower snout, slightly longer caudal peduncle and first dorsal-fin base, longer caudal fin and narrower pectoral fins (Tables 2, 9).
description: Published as part of Uiblein, Franz, Gledhill, Daniel C., Pavlov, Dimitri A., Hoang, Tuan Anh & Shaheen, Shaker, 2019, Three new goatfishes of the genus Upeneus (Mullidae) from the Indo-Pacific, with a redescription of colour patterns in U. margarethae, pp. 151-196 in Zootaxa 4683 (2) on pages 185-188, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4683.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/3772664