Four new species of dwarfgobies (Teleostei: Gobiidae: Eviota) from the Austral, Gambier, Marquesas and Society Archipelagos, French Polynesia

Abstract

Four new species of Eviota (Teleostei: Gobiidae) are described from French Polynesia. Eviota hinanoae occurs from the Gambier, Austral and Society Archipelagos and differs from its closest relatives primarily in sensory pore pattern, having cuplike male urogenital papilla, and in lacking prominent dark pigmentation on the base of the pectoral fin. Three other new species, E. dorsimaculata, E. lacrimosa and E. deminuta, are known only from the Marquesas Islands and are distinguished from congeners by differences in pigmentation, sensory pore pattern, urogenital papilla shape, the number of rays in the dorsal and anal fins, and the length of the fifth pelvic-fin ray. Eviota deminuta represents one of the smallest known species of Eviota and features reductions in several morphological characters, including the loss of all head pores. Three of the new species are included in a phylogenetic analysis based on mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase-I, along with 21 additional species of Eviota.

Key words:

• coral reef fish
• Gobioidei
• Gobiiformes
• goby
• phylogeny
• systematics

Acknowledgements

We thank Frank Murphy, Hinano Murphy and the staff of the Berkeley Gump Station in Moorea for assistance with coordinating fieldwork. The Marquesas specimens were collected during part of the Pakaihi i te Moana expedition organized and funded by the Agence des Aires Marines Protégées in France. Serge Planes organized and led expeditions to French Polynesia that resulted in the collection of representatives of these and other new species. We thank Jocelyn Curtis-Quick for her help in the field. Diane Pitassy at USNM, Dave Catania at CAS and Romain Causse at MNHN helped with deposition of specimens. We gratefully acknowledge Dave Greenfield for helpful discussion, and he and Richard Winterbottom for providing preliminary unpublished dichotomous keys for Eviota species. Fieldwork by LT and GA in Moorea was graciously funded by Frank Pezold and by the Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi International Studies Study Abroad Scholarship. We thank the Centre Plongée Marquises, Xavier (Pipapo) and Marie Curvat, l’Agence des Aires Marines Marine Protégées, the Fondation TOTAL, the Ministère de l’Environnement de Polynésie, the Délégation à la Recherche de Polynésie, the Mairie of Nuku-Hiva, and the people of the Marquesas Islands for their kind and generous support of the project as JTW travelled throughout the islands. The Captain, crew and owner of the M/V ‘Braveheart’ (Marquesas Expedition) and the crew of the M/V ‘Claymore II’ (Gambier Expedition) provided invaluable assistance during those cruises. The Coralspot expedition to Gambier was funded by the ‘Contrat de projet Etat-Polynésie’, by the ANR ‘IMODEL’ and the French Ministry for Environment, Sustainable Development and Transport (MEDDTL). We thank Jerry Finan, Erika Wilbur, Shirleen Smith, Kris Murphy, David Smith and Sandra Raredon of the Division of Fishes (National Museum of Natural History) for assistance in expedition preparations and processing specimens. Sandra Raredon and Kris Murphy provided digital and film radiographs. Chris Meyer (USNM) and the Biocode Moorea programme provided funding for the sequencing of tissues from the Gambier collections. Lee Weight, Amy Driskell and Jeff Hunt of the Laboratories of Analytical Biology (Smithsonian Institution) provided support for and assistance with molecular analysis of samples. We are especially grateful to Serge Planes, Erwan Delrieu-Trottin, Tom Cribb, Rene Galzin, Pierre Sasal and Johan Mourier for their field assistance collecting fishes in the Marquesas. We thank Labex ‘CORAIL’ and the staff of the Centre de Recherche Insulaire et Observatoire de l’Environnement (CRIOBE), Moorea, for logistical support. The Leonard P. Schultz Fund (Division of Fishes, National Museum of Natural History) provided grants in support of fieldwork and museum visits.

Associate Editor: Kevin Conway