New record of Neoclinus lacunicola (Actinopterygii: Perciformes: Chaenopsidae) from Ulleung Island, Korea revealed by body morphometry and mitochondrial DNA barcoding

Abstract

One specimen (38.3 mm SL) of Neoclinus lacunicola Fukao, 1980, belonging to the family Chaenopsidae, was first recorded from Ulleung Island, Korea (East Sea, otherwise known as the Sea of Japan) on 5 January 2021. This species was characterized by paired external pores of incomplete lateral line running from the upper margin of the opercle, seven pairs of supraorbital cirri arranged in two rows, occipital region with a pair of cirri, and 13 rays of pectoral fin. This species is morphologically similar to the Neoclinus toshimaensis Fukao, 1980, but differs in the number of cirri on the supraorbital (6–7 versus 9–11 cirri). This study documents the first report of N. lacunicola in Korean waters and proposes the new Korean name of ‘eol-lug-bi-neul-be-do-la-chi’ for the species. For the confirmation of the identity of the species, a partial gene sequence of the mt COI (570 bp) of N. lacunicola was obtained for the first time.

First report of Ernogrammus zhirmunskii Markevich & Kharin, 2011 (Perciformes: Stichaeidae) in Dokdo, Korea

“…Consequently, new occurrences of tropical or subtropical marine species have been increasingly recorded in the southern Korean sea (Jung, 2008;Sakamoto et al, 2021). Efforts of discovering unrecorded species, e.g., Neoclinus chiriroe (Dokdo) and Neoclinus lacunicola (Ulleung island), in the East Sea only have been made recently (Myoung et al, 2021a, Myoung et al, 2021b. With the exception of the above newly recorded species (truly temperate fishes), there likely remain several unrevealed warm water species in the East Sea, because recent northward trend of the Tsushima Warm Current facilitates range expansions of subtropical marine organisms to the East Sea (Son et al, 2020).…”

“…While small fish species are relatively unrevealed due to difficulty of sampling, this group of species is mostly hard to find or collect because of their small size and hiding behavior between crevices of rocks. Recently, direct collection through scuba diving is suggested as an alternative method for discovering such unrecorded small fish species (Myoung et al, 2021a, Myoung et al, 2021b. Application of various methods will be one of the important works to discover hidden diversity by reporting unrecorded or new species inhabiting Korean seas.…”