ON THE OCCURRENCE OF TENACIGOBIUS YONGEI (DAVIS & COHEN) IN THE GULF OF ELAT (RED SEA) (PISCES: GOBIIDAE)

Abstract

The goby Tenacigobius yongei (Davis & Cohen, 1968) has been described from Borneo and Hawai. It lives on the antipatharian sea whip Cirhipathes sp., sharing this ecological niche with the palaemonid shrimp Pontonides unciger (Calman) (Davis & Cohen, 1968). Although the sea whip and associated shrimp have been known from the Red Sea for many years, this goby has surprisingly not been recorded from the Red Sea or the Western Indian Ocean. This small goby has probably been overlooked by scientists, as have many other common gobies recently discovered(Goren, 1983), due to its small size. During a redent study of the taxonomy and ecology of gobies living in association with sessile invertebrates, carried out in the northern Red Sea, specimens of T. yongei were collected and identified, and the species is reported here as being a new record for the Red Sea