Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Type: Monograph
Published: 2017-12-21
Page range: 1–103
Abstract views: 118
PDF downloaded: 3

A revision of the grunter genus Syncomistes (Teleostei, Terapontidae, Syncomistes) with descriptions of seven new species from the Kimberley region, northwestern Australia

School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia Ichthyology, Sciences Department, Museum Victoria, Victoria 3001, Australia
Department of Biology, University of Bergen, Bergen N–5020, Norway
School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia
Pisces Cryptic species sympatric range-restricted freshwater biodiversity taxonomy systematics neotype

Abstract

The systematics of the genus Syncomistes Vari, 1978 endemic to freshwater habitats of remote northwestern Australia, is reviewed in light of recent collections in the region and a fine scale molecular study of the group that identified new taxa. Based primarily on external morphology, seven taxa are described as new: Syncomistes bonapartensis sp. nov., S. carcharus sp. nov., S. dilliensis sp. nov., S. holsworthi sp. nov., S. moranensis sp. nov., S. wunambal sp. nov. and S. versicolor sp. nov. The species complexes Syncomistes butleri Vari, 1978 and S. trigonicus Vari, 1978 are resolved and redescribed, and S. kimberleyensis Vari, 1978 and S. rastellus Vari & Hutchins, 1978 are redescribed based on juvenile and adult specimens. Finally, a neotype is provided for S. trigonicus sensu stricto in place of the destroyed holotype. Meristic and morphometric data are collected and analysed for the entire genus. Syncomistes have a broad range of meristic and morphometric character differences between species, and juveniles and adults, as well as variations in colour. The head, particularly feeding structures such as the jaw and dentition, were found to be the most important morphological features in discriminating between taxa. Some characters undergo distinct ontogenetic shifts in form, which are discussed. Of note, four of the new species, and seven from the entire genus, are narrow-range endemics, each found in single river systems, and are thus of conservation concern. 

References

  1. Adams, M., Raadik, T.A., Burridge, C.P. & Georges, A. (2014) Global biodiversity assessment and hyper-cryptic species complexes: more than one species of elephant in the room? Systematic Biology, 63, 518–533.
    https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syu017

    Allen, G.R. (1982) A field guide to inland fishes of Western Australia. Western Australian Museum, Perth, 6 pp.

    Allen, G.R. & Leggett, R. (1990) A collection of freshwater fishes from the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum, 14, 527–545.

    Allen, G.R., Midgley, S.H. & Allen, M. (2002) Field Guide to the freshwater fishes of Australia. Western Australian Museum, Perth, 394 pp. [pp. 236–239 pp.]

    Allen, G.R., Cross, N.J., Hoese, D.F. & Lockett, M.M. (2012) Family Terapontidae. Australian Faunal Directory, Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Environment and Energy, Canberra. Available from: https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/TERAPONTIDAE/complete (accessed 16 February 2017)

    Almeida, P.R., Tomaz, G., Andrade, N.O. & Quintella, B.R. (2008) Morphological analysis of geographic variation of sea lamprey ammocoetes in Portuguese river basins. Hydrobiologia, 602, 47–59.
    https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8548-2_4

    Austin, C.M. & Ryan, S.G. (2002) Allozyme evidence for a new species of freshwater crayfish of the genus Cherax Erichson (Decapoda: Parastacidae) from the south-west of Western Australia. Invertebrate Systematics, 16 (3), 357–367.
    https://doi.org/10.1071/IT01010

    Betancur-R. R., Acero, A., Duque-Caro, H. & Santos, S.R. (2010) Phylogenetic and morphologic analyses of a coastal fish reveals a marine biogeographic break of terrestrial origin in the southern Caribbean. PloS ONE, 5, e11566.
    https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0011566

    Bray, D.J. (2017) Craterocephalus, Galaxias, Melanotaenia, in Fishes of Australia. Available from: http://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/genus/374 (accessed 30 July 2017)

    Buckle, D., Storey, A., Humphrey, C. & Chandler, L. (2010) Fish and macroinvertebrate assemblages of the upper Ord River catchment. Internal Report 559, January, Supervising Scientist, Darwin, 38 pp.

    Claytor, R.R. & MacCrimmon, H.R. (1987) Stock structure of Atlantic salmon: its current status and future perspectives. In: Kumpf, H.E., Vaught, R.N., Grimes, C.B., Johnson, A.G. & Nakamura, E.L. (Eds.), Proceedings of the Stock Identification Workshop. 5–7 November 1985, Panama City Beach, FL. NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS–SEFC–199. US Government Printing Office, Washington, pp. 194–196.

    Davis, A.M., Unmack, P.J., Pusey, B.J., Johnson, J.B. & Pearson, R.G. (2012) Marine-freshwater transitions are associated with the evolution of dietary diversification in terapontid grunters (Teleostei: Terapontidae). Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 25, 1163–1179.
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2012.02504.x

    Davis, A.M., Unmack, P.J., Pusey, B.J., Pearson, R.G., Morgan, D.L. (2013) Ontogenetic development of intestinal length and relationships to diet in an Australasian fish family (Terapontidae). BMC Evolutionary Biology, 13, 53.
    https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-13-53

    Davis, A.M., Unmack, P.J., Vari, R.P. & Betancur-R, R. (2016) Herbivory promotes dental disparification and macroevolutionary dynamics in grunters (Teleostei: Terapontidae), a freshwater adaptive radiation. The American Naturalist, 187, 320–333.
    https://doi.org/10.1086/684747

    de Queiroz, K. (1998) The general lineage concept of species, species criteria, and the process of speciation: a conceptual unification and terminological recommendations. In: Howard, D.J. & Berlocher, S.H. (Eds.), Endless Forms: Species and Speciation. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 57–75.

    de Queiroz, K. (2007) Species concepts and species delimitation. Systematic biology, 56 (6), 879–886.
    https://doi.org/10.1080/10635150701701083

    Gavrilets, S., Li, H. & Vose, M.D. (2000) Patterns of parapatric speciation. Evolution, 54 (4), 1126–1134.
    https://doi.org/10.1554/0014-3820(2000)054[1126:POPS]2.0.CO;2

    Guill, J.M., Heins, D.C. & Hood, C.S. (2003) The effect of phylogeny on interspecific body shape variation in Darters (Pisces: Percidae). Systematic Biology, 52, 488–500.
    https://doi.org/10.1080/10635150390197019

    Hammer, M.P., Unmack, P.J., Adams, M., Raadik, T.A. & Johnson, J.B. (2014). A multigene molecular assessment of cryptic biodiversity in the iconic freshwater blackfishes (Teleostei: Percichthyidae: Gadopsis) of south-eastern Australia. Biological journal of the Linnean Society, 111 (3), 521–540.
    https://doi.org/10.1111/bij.12222

    Hoese, D.F., Bray, D.J., Paxton, J.R. & Allen, G.R. (2006) Terapontidae. In: Beesley, P.A. & Wells, A. (Eds), Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Vol. 35. ABRS & CSIRO Publishing, pp. 1341.

    Hubbs, C.L. & Lagler, K.F. (1947) Fishes of the Great Lakes region. Cranbrook Institute of Science, Bloomfield Hills, 213 pp. [pp. 19–26]

    Hutchins, J.B. (2001) Checklist of the fishes of Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum, 63 (Supplement), 9–50.
    https://doi.org/10.18195/issn.0313-122x.63.2001.009-050

    Hutchins, J.B. & Smith, K.N. (1991) A catalogue of type specimens of fishes in the Western Australian Museum. Records of the Western Australian Museum, 38 (Supplement), 22–23.

    Larson, H.K. & Martin, K.C. (1990) Freshwater Fishes of the Northern Territory. Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences Handbook Series Number 1. Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences, Darwin, 55 pp.

    Larson, H.K., Williams, R.S. & Hammer, M.P. (2013) An annotated checklist of the fishes of the Northern Territory, Australia. Zootaxa, 3696 (1), 1–293.
    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3696.1.1

    Le Feuvre, M.C. (2017) Triple Jeopardy in the Tropics: Assessing Extinction Risk in Australia’s Freshwater Biodiversity Hotspot. PhD Thesis. The University of Melbourne. Melbourne, VIC, 180 pp.

    McDowall, R.M. & Hewitt, J.E. (2004) Attempts to distinguish morphotypes of the Canterbury-Otago non-migratory Galaxias species complex. DOC Science Internal Series 165. Department of Conservation, Wellington, 19 pp.

    McElroy, D.M. & Douglas, M.E. (1995) Patterns of morphological variation among endangered populations of Gila robusta and Gila cypha (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) in the upper Colorado River Basin. Copeia, 1995, 636–649.
    https://doi.org/10.2307/1446760

    Merrick, J.R. & Schmida, G.E. (1984) Australian Freshwater Fishes Biology and Management. J.R. Merrick, Sydney, 244 pp.

    Moore, G.I., Hutchins, J.B., Smith, K.N. & Morrison, S.M. (2008) Catalogue of type specimens of fishes in the Western Australian Museum (Second Edition). Records of the Western Australian Museum, 74 (Supplement), 1–69.
    https://doi.org/10.18195/issn.0313-122x.74.2008.001-069

    Morgan, D.L., Allen, G.R., Pusey, B.J. & Burrows, D.W. (2011a) A review of the freshwater fishes of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Zootaxa, 2816, 1–64.

    Morgan, D.L., Beatty, S.J., Klunzinger, M.W., Allen, M.G. & Burnham, Q. (2011b) A field guide to freshwater fishes, crayfishes & mussels of south-western Australia. SERCUL & Murdoch University, Perth, 66 pp.

    Morgan, D.L., Beatty, S.J. & Adams, M. (2013) Nannoperca pygmaea, a new species of pygmy perch (Teleostei: Percichthyidae) from Western Australia. Zootaxa, 3637 (4), 401–412.
    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3637.4.1

    Morgan, D.L., Unmack, P.J., Beatty, S.J., Ebner, B.C., Allen, M.G., Keleher, J.J., Donaldson, J.A. & Murphy, J.O.N. (2014) An overview of the 'freshwater fishes' of Western Australia, Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, 97, 263–278. [http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/35891]

    Mayr, E. (1969) The biological meaning of species. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 1 (3), 311–320.
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8312.1969.tb00123.x

    Paxton, J.R., Hoese, D.F., Allen, G.R. & Hanley, J.E. (1989) Zoological catalogue of Australia. Vol. 7. Part 1. Pisces. Petromyzontidae to Carangidae. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 665 pp. [pp. 536–542]

    Phillips, R.D., Storey, A.W. & Johnson, M.S. (2009) Genetic structure of Melanotaenia australis at local and regional scales in the east Kimberley, Western Australia. Journal of Fish Biology, 74, 437–51.
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8649.2008.02099.x

    Powers, S.L. & Mayden, R.L. (2003) Etheostoma cervus: a new species from the Forked Deer River system in western Tennessee with comparison to Etheostoma pyrrhogaster (Percidae: Subgenus Ulocentra). Copeia, 2003, 576–582.
    https://doi.org/10.1643/CI-02-121R2

    Raadik, T.A. (2014) Fifteen from one: a revision of the Galaxias olidus Günther, 1866 complex (Teleostei, Galaxiidae) in south-eastern Australia recognises three previously described taxa and describes 12 new species. Zootaxa, 3898 (1), 1–198.
    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3898.1.1

    Richardson, B.J., Baverstock, P.R. & Adams, M. (1986) Alloryme electrophoresis. A handbook for animal systematics and population studies. Academic Press, New York, 410 pp.

    Shelley, J.J. (2016) Evolution and biogeography of Australian tropical freshwater fishes. PhD Thesis. The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, 273 pp.

    Sokol, R. & Rohlf, F. (1995) Biometry. Freeman WH, New York, 887 pp.

    Strauss, R.E. (1985) Evolutionary allometry and variation in body form in the South American catfish genus Corydoras (Callichthyidae). Systematic Biology, 34, 381–396. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/34.4.381

    Stoffels, R.J. (2013) Trophic ecology. In: Humphries, P. & Walker, K.F. (Eds.), Ecology of Australian freshwater fishes. CSIRO Publishing, Victoria, pp. 1–143.

    Unmack, P.J. (2001) Biogeography of Australian freshwater fishes. Journal of Biogeography, 28, 1053–1089.
    https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2699.2001.00615.x

    Vari, R.P. (1978) The terapon perches (Percoidei, Teraponidae): a cladistic analysis and taxonomic revision. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History; 159 (5), 175–340. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/2246/1273 (Accessed 19 Dec. 2017)

    Vari, R.P. & Hutchins, J.B. (1978) New species of terapon perches (Percoidei, Teraponidae) from Australia. American Museum Novitates, 2654, 1–8.

    Zar, J.H. (1984) Biostatistical analysis. Prentice-Hall International, New Jersey, 718 pp.