Description

SINGLE PAPER

Volume 9, Issue 1 – October 2004

Gerald R. Allen and John E. Randall: Two new species of damselfishes (Pomacentridae: Chromis) from Indonesian seas, pp. 17-24

Abstract

Two new species of pomacentrid fishes are described from coral reefs of Indonesia. Chromis monochroma is described from five specimens, 41.0-51.3 mm SL, collected at Flores in depths between 42 and 53 m. It has XIII,10-11 (usually 11) dorsal rays; II,11 anal rays; 16-17 (usually 17) pectoral rays; 3 spiniform caudal rays; 14-15 (usually 14) tubed lateral line scales; body depth 1.79-2.0 in SL, and lacks any distinctive colour markings. Chromis alpha is the closest relative, having the same meristic and morphometric data except usually 12 instead of 11 dorsal and anal soft rays, and 15 rather than 14 lateral line scales. It differs in colour, notably in having a black spot at the upper base of the pectoral fin and blackish posterior margins of the preopercle and opercle. The second new species, C. pura, is described from five specimens, 54.7-76.3 mm SL, collected at Pura, near Alor in the Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia in 18 m. It has XIII,12-13 (usually 12) dorsal rays; II,11 anal rays; 19-20 pectoral rays; 2 spiniform caudal rays; 16-18 tubed lateral line scales; and a colour pattern similar to C. flavomaculata from which it differs in having 25-27 instead of 29-34 gill rakers.