Description

SINGLE PAPER

Volume 6, Issue 1 – October 2002

Jeffrey T. Williams: Three new species of blennioid shore fishes discovered at Navassa Island, Caribbean Sea, pp. 11-16

Abstract

An exploratory expedition to Navassa Island was carried out in April-May 1999. Specimens representing eight undescribed cryptic species were taken with rotenone while occupying 22 collecting stations, mostly by scuba diving: five blennioids, two clingfishes, and a goby. Descriptions of three of the blennioids, two chaenopsids and a dactyloscopid, are included here: Acanthemblemaria harpeza new species based on 268 specimens from Navassa; Emblemaria vitta new species based on two specimens, the holotype from Navassa and the paratype from Belize; and Gillellus inescatus new species based on one specimen from Navassa. Descriptions of these three new species are provided herein to allow the use of the names in a checklist of the shorefishes of Navassa Island, which is in press in aqua.