Indo-West Pacific Blenniid Fish Genus Istiblennius Reappraised: A Revision of Istiblennius, Blenniella, and Paralticus, New Genus. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, Number 565

摘要

Istiblennius Whitley, as most recently defined (Smith-Vaniz and Springer, 1971), comprises 2 monophyletic groups of species, which we recognize as separate genera, Blenniella Reid (9 species) and Istiblennius (14 species). A cladistic analysis supports the hypothesis that Blenniella and Istiblennius form a clade. The 14 species of Istiblennius include 2 new species: /. pox, from southernmost Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, and /. spilotus, from most of East African coast, Comoro Islands, Madagascar, Gulf of Oman, and Pakistan. A monotypic new genus, Paralticus, is described for Salarias amboninensis Bleeker, which had been assigned most recently (Smith-Vaniz and Springer, 1971) to Praealticus Schultz and Chapman. Although superficially similar to Istiblennius species, P. amboinensis is a member of a clade that also comprises Praealticus, Alticus, and Andamia. Most of the species we revise exhibit statistically significant meristic sexual dimorphism, as well as noticeable geographic variation. All species are illustrated, including both sexes, individual and geographic variants, and ophioblennius stage prejuveniles (for all 5 species for which these stages are known). Distribution maps for all species are presented. Cladistic analyses are given for a subset of the genera of the tribe Salariini, to which the 3 genera we revise belong, and for the species of Blenniella and Istiblennius. The generic level analysis corroborates a major portion of the analysis proposed by Williams (1990). Because of character variability, we consider the results of the generic analyses highly tentative. Discussions of the biogeography of the genera and species are presented. The Philippine Islands are noted as a general area of endemism for fishes and an explanation is proposed.