A review of 263 years of taxonomic research on Hypoplectrus (Perciformes: Serranidae), with a redescription of Hypoplectrus affinis (Poey, 1861)

Abstract

The hamlets (Hypoplectrus spp., Perciformes: Serranidae) constitute a distinctive model system for the study of a variety of ecological and evolutionary processes including the evolution and maintenance of simultaneous hermaphroditism and egg trading, sex allocation, sexual selection, social-trap, mimicry, dispersal, speciation, and adaptive radiation. Addressing such fundamental and complex processes requires a good knowledge of the taxonomy and natural history of the hamlets. Here, we review the taxonomy of the hamlets, from early ichthyological studies to the most recent species description in 2018. We report a total of 72 different binomial names for Hypoplectrus, synonymized or invalidated down to 17 unambiguously recognized species today. In addition, we redescribe Hypoplectrus affinis (Poey, 1861) as a valid species. In Bocas del Toro (Panama), this hamlet is distinct from eight sympatric congeners in terms of colour pattern, body size and behaviour. Whole-genome analysis and spawning observations indicate that it is genetically distinct from sympatric congeners and reproductively isolated through assortative pairing. Based on the colour pattern we detail in its redescription, live-fish photographs, videos, and earlier reports, H. affinis occurs in Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, the Florida Keys, Cuba, Grand Cayman, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Los Roques (Venezuela), Bonaire, and Tobago. We conclude with a discussion of pending taxonomic issues in this group and the species status of the hamlets in general.

An updated, illustrated inventory of the marine fishes of the US Virgin Islands

“…Gobiidae -we follow Thacker (2009) in including Cerdale and Ptereleotris among the Gobiidae. Hypoplectrus -we follow Puebla et al (2022) in treating H. maculiferus as a synonym of H. aberrans. Dennis (2000) listed 401 species from 216 genera and 79 families from those two islands (Table 2).…”

Phenotypic and genomic dissection of colour pattern variation in a reef fish radiation

“…In this perspective, photographs of live individuals in their natural environment are ideal to capture colour pattern variation within and among species (e.g. Puebla et al, 2022; Robertson et al, 2019). Nevertheless, such photographs are not suited for quantitative analysis due to their lack of standardization in terms of size, colour and orientation.…”

“…A total of 96 samples were sequenced anew for this study. In all, 17 additional samples were available from Moran et al (2019), one from Hench et al (2019) and two from Puebla et al (2022). For the new samples, genomic DNA was extracted from tissue samples using Qiagen MagAttract High Molecular Weight kits.…”

“…The hamlets are a genus of small predatory sea basses from the wider Caribbean. They are characterized by striking variation in colour pattern that delineates 18 recognized species (Lobel, 2011; Puebla et al, 2022). The hamlets are highly sympatric and very similar ecologically (Holt et al, 2008; Whiteman et al, 2007).…”

Assessing phenovariant species pairs of moray eels: Hybridization, introgression, and morphology

“…Bowen et al, 2006;Tea et al, 2016;Victor & Randall, 2010;Victor, 2020). Hamlets (Hypoplectrus, Serranidae) are one of the most well-known sympatric phenovariant cases, with about 17 colour-based morphospecies in the tropical western Atlantic Ocean that has been considered a result of radiation driven by strong assortative mating and frequent hybridization (Garcia-Machado et al, 2004;Puebla et al, 2014Puebla et al, , 2022Victor, 2012;Victor & Marks, 2018). Allopatric phenovariants are usually observed from sibling species or species complexes that are distributed adjacently, which may simply attribute to undetected or shallow genetic divergences of the peripheral or isolated populations in the early stage of speciation (e.g.…”