A new cleaner goby of the genus Elacatinus (Teleostei: Gobiidae), from Trindade Island, off Brazil

Abstract

Elacatinus pridisi n. sp., a cleaner goby from Trindade Island, off Brazil, differs from its congeners of the Horsti Complex that have a pale stripe extending from the eye to the caudal fin base by the following combination of characters: dark longitudinal stripe wide, reaching lower abdomen and base of anal fin (vs. never reaching lower abdomen or base of anal fin in all other species); pectoralfin rays typically 18 (vs. typically 17 in E. randalli (B hlke & Robins) and E. figaro Sazima et al. and typically 16 in E. atronasum (B hlke & Robins)); anal-fin rays typically 11 (vs. typically 10 in E. figaro); a pale oval spot present on snout (vs. no spot in E. atronasum and E. horsti (B hlke & Robins), a "V"-shaped spot in E. prochilos (B hlke & Robins), and a medial bar in E. xanthiprora (B hlke & Robins), E. louisae (B hlke & Robins) and E. lori Colin). The new species was recorded in depths ranging from 3 to 30 m, over rocky reefs and calcareous-algae banks around the island. It has been observed in cleaning activities during the day with clients varying from large-sized carnivores such as Carcharhinus perezi (Poey) to small-sized planktivores such as Chromis multilineata (Guichenot). The discovery of the new species reinforces recognition of the Trindade-Martin Vaz insular complex as an area of endemism in the Atlantic Ocean.

A new cleaner species of Elacatinus (Actinopterygii: Gobiidae) from the Southwestern Atlantic

“…The new species differ from the similar Elacatinus randalli by yellow lateral stripe width almost equal as eye diameter (much narrower than eye diameter in the precedent species), yellow elliptical spot on dark snout (yellow spot on light snout in the precedent species), no blue line in life from below eye to end of opercular margin (very conspicuous in the precedent species) ( Figure 3), and much shorter snout (3.5-4.7 and 6.7-8.7% of SL respectively). The new species increases to three the number of cleaner gobies known in Southwestern Atlantic, one from the coast and two from oceanic islands (Sazima et al 1997, Guimarães et al 2004. The recently described, oceanic Elacatinus pridisi (Guimarães et al 2004) likely belongs in the "randalli-evelynae" cleaning clade (sensu Taylor & Hellberg 2005) as well.…”

“…The new species increases to three the number of cleaner gobies known in Southwestern Atlantic, one from the coast and two from oceanic islands (Sazima et al 1997, Guimarães et al 2004. The recently described, oceanic Elacatinus pridisi (Guimarães et al 2004) likely belongs in the "randalli-evelynae" cleaning clade (sensu Taylor & Hellberg 2005) as well. Additionally, we suggest that Elacatinus phthirophagus sp.…”

“…The reef-dwelling neon gobies of the genus Elacatinus s. s. (see Taylor & Hellberg 2005) are currently represented by 16 species in the Western Atlantic, most of them known from the Caribbean, with only three species reported south of the equator (Böhlke & Robins 1968, Colin 1975, Guimarães et al 2004, Taylor & Hellberg 2005, Taylor & Akins 2007. Here we describe a new cleaning species of Elacatinus from Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, off northeastern Brazil, previously misidentified for Elacatinus randalli (Böhlke & Robins) (Sazima & Moura 2000, Guimarães et al 2004, Sazima et al 2004.…”

Mob rulers and part-time cleaners: two reef fish associations at the isolated Ascension Island

“…We found only facultative cleaners at Ascension (sensu Côté, 2000; Grutter, 2005; Francini-Filho & Sazima, 2008). The only obligate fish cleaners in the Atlantic are gobies of the genus Elacatinus , which occur in four oceanic islands in the South-western Atlantic (Fernando de Noronha and Atol das Rocas, Sazima et al , 2008; Batista et al , 2012; and Trindade and Martim Vaz, Gasparini & Floeter, 2001; Guimarães et al , 2004), but are absent in both the Mid-Atlantic Ridge Islands (Lubbock, 1980; Lubbock & Edwards, 1981; Edwards & Glass, 1987; Feitoza et al , 2003) and the Tropical Eastern Atlantic (Wirtz et al , 2007; Quimbayo et al , 2012). It is possible that due to the absence of obligate cleaners in some oceanic islands, the cleaner role is taken over by facultative cleaners, some of which are endemic to these islands.…”

Two new species of Elacatinus (Teleostei: Gobiidae) from the Mexican coast of the Gulf of Mexico

“…Together, the 22 western Atlantic species of Elacatinus (s.l.) are distributed variously from Bermuda and the coast of the southeastern United States, southward throughout the Bahamas and Caribbean Sea, to the reefs and offshore islands of Brazil (Böhlke & Robins 1968;Colin 1975;Sazima et al 1997;Colin 2002;Guimarães et al 2004). However, the genus is notably depauperate in the Gulf of Mexico, with only three species, E. oceanops Jordon, E. xanthiprora (Böhlke & Robins) and E. macrodon (Beebe and Tee-Van), previously reported.…”