Gymnothorax poikilospilus, a new moray eel (Teleostei: Anguilliformes: Muraenidae) from Penghu Islands, western Taiwan

Abstract

Gymnothorax poikilospilus sp. nov. is described based on two specimens collected from Penghu Islands, western Taiwan. It is a medium-sized brown moray that body covered with several rows of inconspicuous large dark brown patches on the back of body and dorsal fin. It has slightly elongated and arched jaws similar to the common characteristic of the genus Enchelycore Kaup, but the dentition supports it belongs to typical morays of the genus Gymnothorax Bloch. The new species can be distinguished from other similar Indo-Pacific brown morays by the combination of dentition, vertebral formula, and morphometric measurements. Molecular analyses based on 612 bp of mitochondrial COI gene also support it as a distinct species.

Description of a new moray eel (Anguilliformes: Muraenidae) from the Philippines, with a preliminary assessment of genetic and morphological variations of the Uropterygius concolor species complex

“…Details of DNA extraction, PCR thermal cycling conditions, PCR product purification, and DNA sequencing followed Huang et al . (2021). Sequences were edited manually in MEGA version 11 (Tamura et al ., 2021), and newly generated sequences were submitted to GenBank (accession numbers in Figure 3).…”

“…Genomic DNA was extracted from muscle tissues of 18 out of the 21 specimens, and a fragment of partial COI gene (680 bp) was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using primers FishF2 (5 0 -TCG ACT AAT CAT AAA GAT ATC GGC AC-3 0 ) and FishR2 (5 0 -ACT TCA GGG TGA CCG AAG AAT CAG AA-3 0 ) (Ward et al, 2005). Details of DNA extraction, PCR thermal cycling conditions, PCR product purification, and DNA sequencing followed Huang et al (2021).…”