Description

SINGLE PAPER

Volume 16, Issue 3 – 15 July 2010

Thomas H. Fraser: A new deepwater species of the genus Apogonichthyoides (Apogonidae) from the Timor Sea, north-western Australia, pp. 93-100

Abstract
A new species, Apogonichthyoides miniatus, is described from 27 specimens collected from the Timor Sea, north-western Australia in 95 m. A diminutive deepwater species, smaller as adults than other species in the A. nigripinnis group (11 species), differs in color from all other known species (19) of Apogonichthyoides by having an overall reddish head, body and fins, a rounded non-ocellate darkish body spot above the pectoral fin followed by three faint midline darkish marks. This species also has low gill raker counts, high pectoral fin-ray counts and a rounded caudal fin. Selected osteological characters are figured for the caudal skeleton, a portion of the dorsal fin with a small visible eighth spine and a lateral-line scale. Representatives of at least four other genera share a visible eighth dorsal spine.