Abstract

The grouper Epinephelus ergastularius Whitley, 1930, from New South Wales and Queensland is recognised as a valid species; it is closely related to the wide-ranging Indo-Pacific E. octofasciatus Griffin and the Japanese E. septemfasciatus (Thunberg), sharing with them such characters as one or a few small spines on the ventral margin of the preopercle, seven dark bars on the body of the young, the upper half of the peduncular bar black, and the same meristic data, including nine anal soft rays. It differs in having a truncate to slightly emarginate caudal fin in the adult with a distinct broad pale posterior border, pale borders posteriorly on the dorsal and anal fins of adults, and irregular, fine dermal ridges on the back adjacent to the dorsal-fin base. The young can be distinguished by the unequal spacing between the first four dark bars on the body. Epinephelus chabaudi (Castelnau) of East Africa is also a close relative, differing in having numerous branched pyloric caeca, a prominent black streak above the maxilla in the adult, and in lacking dermal ridges and broad pale borders on the fins. Epinephelus thompsoni Whitley, 1948, is known from a single specimen, taken in 129 to 137 m off Queensland, which has only 13 dorsal soft rays. This grouper name is a junior secondary homonym of E. thompsoni (Fowler, 1923). The name, E. perplexus, replaced the homonym.

 
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Bibliographic Data

Short Form
Randall et al., 1993, Rec. Aust. Mus. 45(1): 25–31
Author
John E. Randall; Douglass F. Hoese; Peter R. Last
Year
1993
Title
On the status of the Australian serranid fishes Epinephelus ergastularius Whitley and E. thompsoni Whitley
Serial Title
Records of the Australian Museum
Volume
45
Issue
1
Start Page
25
End Page
31
DOI
10.3853/j.0067-1975.45.1993.127
Language
en
Date Published
19 March 1993
Cover Date
19 March 1993
ISSN (print)
0067-1975
CODEN
RAUMAJ
Publisher
The Australian Museum
Place Published
Sydney, Australia
Subjects
FISHES; TAXONOMY
Digitized
05 February 2009
Reference Number
127
EndNote
127.enw
Title Page
127.pdf
File size: 83kB
Complete Work
127_complete.pdf
File size: 2029kB