Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
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Online Publication Date: 17 Feb 2022

Five Valid Species of Cardinalfishes of the Genus Apogon (Apogonidae) in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, with a Redescription of A. atricaudus and Notes on the Distribution of A. atricaudus and A. atradorsatus

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Page Range: 106 – 114
DOI: 10.1643/i2020137
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For more than 100 years, biologists, ecologists, and biogeographers recognized six species of Apogon in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Re-examining this taxonomy, we find that Apogon guadalupensis is a synonym of A. atricaudus based on morphological and molecular data. A redescription of A. atricaudus is provided, and a new northern occurrence for A. atradorsatus is reported.

Copyright: © 2022 by the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists
Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.

School of Apogon “guadalupensis” at Guadalupe Island, Baja California, Mexico. Photograph © Daniel Richards, June 2010.

Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.

(A) Apogon atricaudus, syntype, CAS-SU 5708 (1 of 12 in lot), Revillagigedo Archipelago, Socorro Island, collected May 1897, photograph by David Catania, CAS. (B) Positive radiograph from a negative of syntype USMN 48527, 70.9 mm SL, by Thomas Fraser in 1974.

Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.

Amia guadalupensis, holotype, 84.0 mm SL, USNM 87545 (originally AMNH 5204), now in Apogon. (A) Figure 9 in Osburn and Nichols, 1916. (B) Photograph by Thomas Fraser in 1974. (C) Positive radiograph of a film negative by T. Fraser in 1974.

Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.

Apogon atricaudus. (A) Santa Catalina Island, Quarry Rock, California, depth 7.6 m. (B) Cabo Pulmo, Baja California Sur, Mexico, depth 4.5 m. Photographs © Keoki Stender, April 2002; (A) treated as guadalupensis when photographed.

Fig. 5.
Fig. 5.

Apogon atradorsatus. Isla Salsipuedes, Baja California, Mexico. LACM 60025-1. Photograph © Daniel Richards, October 2014.

Fig. 6.
Fig. 6.

Station locations from CAS, LACM, SIO, and USNM for Apogon atricaudus (yellow dots, syntypes yellow star), A. atricaudus (green dots, holotype of Amia guadalupensis green star), and Apogon atradorsatus (orange dots, holotype orange star).

Fig. 7.
Fig. 7.

Neighbor-joining tree for eastern Pacific species of Apogon and the Atlantic A. imberbis. Terminal taxa numbers are Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD) numbers. Locations of collection are presented in parentheses. See Data Accessibility for tree file.

Contributor Notes

1 Department of Ichthyology, California Academy of Sciences, Golden Gate Park, 55 Music Concourse Drive, San Francisco, California 94118; Email: rnlea@comcast.net. Send reprint requests to this address.
2 Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611; Email: cardinalfish@comcast.net.
3 Department of Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560; Email: baldwinc@si.edu.
4 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, 8901 La Jolla Shores Dr., La Jolla, California 92037; Email: matthew.craig@noaa.gov.

Associate Editor: W. L. Smith.

Received: 06 Oct 2020
Accepted: 13 Aug 2021
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