First Record of the Pempheris rhomboidea (Kossmann & Räuber, 1877) from Mersin Bay, Northeastern Mediterranean Sea

NESciences, 2019, 4(1): 76-83 -SHORT COMMINICATIONFirst Record of the Pempheris rhomboidea (Kossmann & Räuber, 1877) from Mersin Bay, Northeastern Mediterranean Sea Nuray Çiftçi*, Mısra Bakan, Deniz Ayas Faculty of Fisheries, Mersin University, Mersin, Turkey Abstract In this study, eight individuals of Pempheris rhomboidea (Kossmann & Räuber, 1877) were for the first time caught in the Mersin Bay, Northeastern Mediterranean Sea. Some morphometric and meristic characters of these individuals were measured. The average standard length (SL): 90.13 mm, total length (TL): 112.62 mm, the length of longest pectoral fin (LPF): 25.88 mm, the length of longest dorsal fin ray (LDF): 21.25 mm, SL/LPF: 3.88, SL/LDF: 4.24, A: III, 39-42; D: VI, 9; LL pore scales: 55-58. The ratio of eye diameter (ED) to standard length (SL) is 7.95. The presence of the non-indigenous Pempheris rhomboidea was reported for the first time from Northeastern Mediterranean Sea and second time fromTurkish marine waters. Keywords: Pempheridae, Sweeper, First Record, Northeastern Mediterranean Sea, Mersin Bay, Turkey Article history: Received 28 September 2018, Accepted 30 January 2019, Available online 31 January 2019 Introduction P. rhomboidea (Kossmann & Räuber, 1877) belongs to the Pempheridae family of Perciformes (Romero, 2002). The average standard length of this species is 13.2 cm (Randall & Victor, 2015). P. rhomboidea is a neritic species, which lives in the pelagic region, the coral reef and the rocky outcrop of the tropical and temperate waters in the Indo-Pacific and Western Atlantic (Azzurro et al., 2015). Their body is shaped rhomboid flattened from the sides, and this species is characterized by big eyes and short nose. They usually go out at night to feed on zooplankton in the reefs in which they live in bulk (Mooi & Randall 2014; Randall & Victor, 2015). It is reported that the * Corresponding Author: Nuray ÇİFTÇİ, e-mail: Natural and Engineering Sciences 77 species is an invasive species that migrated from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea and changed the structure of the ecosystem (Azzurro et al., 2015). The identification of species belonging to Pempheris genus are very difficult. With the help of systematic and molecular studies, errors in the nomenclature of the species belonging to this genus have been tried to be corrected (Koeda et al., 2014; Azzurro et al., 2015). Goren (1986) stated that even in a particular geographic region, there could be taxonomic problems related to these species and the number of species could change. Dor (1984) reported that P. mangula, P. oualensis, P. schwenkii, and P. vanicolensis belonging to Pempheris genus in Red Sea whereas Golani & Diamant (1991) have only accepted the presence of P. vanicolensis in the Red Sea. Goren & Dor (1994) added P. molucca to the species list and also reported the distribution of five Pempheris species in the Red Sea. Golani & Bogorodsky (2010) reported two species of Pempheris, P. schwenkii, P. rhomboidea, in the fish check-list of Red Sea. Randall et al. (2013) argued that P. vanicolensis should be named as P. flavicycla marisrubri (Azzurro et al., 2015). According to Eschmeyer (2013), there are 48 species belonging to the Pempheridae family, however 30 species of them are valid species. This family consists of 4 species containing Parapriacanthus genus and 26 species containing Pempheris genus (Koeda et al. 2013; Randall & Victor, 2015). Koeda et al. (2014) reported that there are 4 different species of Pempheris genus (P. adusta, P. mangula, P. nesogallica, and new species P. tominagai). Randall et al. (2014) refuted the information belonging to the 4 Pempheris species which were claimed to be distributed in the Red Sea by Koeda et al. (2014). Randall & Bineesh (2014) reported 5 species of Pempheris genus in the Indian Ocean. These include: P. flavicycla; P. malabarica; P. mangula identified as a neotype; P. sarayu was reported as a new species, and P. schwenkii which is the first record for India. Azzurro et al. (2015) reported the presence of P. flavicycla, P. rhomboidea, and P. tominagai in the Red Sea as a result of molecular analysis. Randall & Victor (2015) stated that 34 species identified in the Indian Ocean belonging to the genus Pempheris have reached 47 species. Iglésias & Frotté (2015) reported P. rhomboidea from Coast of Cyprus in the fish checklist. Akyol et al. (2017) reported the first record of P. rhomboidea from the Aegean Sea. The first species record of the Pempheris from Mersin Bay has been reported as P. vanicolensis (Gücü et al., 1994). In a later study, P. vanicolensis was recorded in the Gulf of Antalya (Bilecenoğlu & Taşkavak, 1999). It was previously reported that P. mangula was identified as P. vanicolensis in the Mediterranean Sea (Froese & Pauly, 2018). In this research, it is aimed to determine the species of 8 individuals of Pempheris genus catching from Mersin Bay and to determine some morphometric and meristic measurements of individuals. In addition, it was aimed to gather together the issues related to the identification of species in this genus. Materials and Methods Eight individuals of P. rhomboidea (Kossmann & Räuber, 1877) were caught by a trammel net at a depth of 30 m on 10 May 2018 in the Northeastern Mediterranean Sea (Mersin Bay) (coordinate: 36°46′20″N, 34°36′57″E). These specimens were preserved in 4% formalin and were deposited in the Museum of the Systematic, Faculty of Fisheries, Mersin University, (catalogue number: MEUFC-18-11-077). This species belongs to Pempheridae Family of Perciformes. Morphometric Natural and Engineering Sciences 78 and meristic characters of these individuals are given and sampling point of the species in the Mediterranean Sea is presented in Map (Figure 1). Photographs of caught individuals are shown in Figures 2. Figure 1. The red mark indicates the location where the specimens was caught Figure 2. An individual of P. rhomboidea caught from Mersin Bay Natural and Engineering Sciences 79 The key features used in the identification of species belonging to the genus Pempheris are shown below. Anal fin dusky Lateral-line pored scales 54–57 (52–59); 32–39 (36–42) anal segmented rays…………………………………..………………... P. rhomboidea (Azzurro et al., 2015) Scales on chest one-half cycloid and one-half ctenoid; longest dorsal-fin ray 4.05–4.25 in SL; lateral-line scales 52–58 (Red Sea, and as an immigrant to the Mediterranean Sea) .................................................................................P. rhomboidea (Randall & Victor, 2015) Results In this study, eight individuals of P. rhomboidea (Kossmann & Räuber, 1877) were caught by a trammel net at a depth of 30 m out in Mersin Bay. The average of some morphometric measurements of eight individuals and their standard errors are shown in the Table 1. Table 1. Some morphometric measurements of P. rhomboidea individuals Characters X̄ ± Sx (mm) Standard length 90.13±6.20 Total len (...truncated)