Description

SINGLE PAPER

Volume 4, Issue 4 – August 2001

Victor G. Springer and Gerald R. Allen: Ecsenius ops, from Indonesia, and E. tricolor, from Western Philippines and Northwestern Kalimantan, New species of Blenniid Fishes in the Stigmatura Species Group, pp. 151-160

Abstract

Based on additional material and numerous colour photographs taken in the field, Ecsenius melarchus, as treated by springer (1988), is shown to comprise three species, two of which are described as new. We hypothesize that six species within Ecsenius (E. stigmatura, E. melarchus, E. ops n. sp, E. tricolor n. sp., E. midas, and E. lividanalis) form a monophyletic clade, the Stigmatura (E. bicolor, E. namiyei) is the sister group of the Stigmatura group. The Stigmatura group comprises a trichotomy of two monospecific branches and the Stigmatura complex, which comprises an unresolved polytomy of E. melarchus, E. stigmatura, E. ops, and E. tricolor. Aspects of the distribution of the Stigmatura complex species are discussed with regard to Huxley’s Line.