Hippocampus nalu, a new species of pygmy seahorse from South Africa, and the first record of a pygmy seahorse from the Indian Ocean (Teleostei, Syngnathidae)

Short, Graham; Claassens, Louw; Smith, Richard; De Brauwer, Maarten; Hamilton, Healy; Stat, Michael; Harasti, David

Title: Hippocampus nalu, a new species of pygmy seahorse from South Africa, and the first record of a pygmy seahorse from the Indian Ocean (Teleostei, Syngnathidae)
Creator: Short, Graham; Claassens, Louw; Smith, Richard; De Brauwer, Maarten; Hamilton, Healy; Stat, Michael; Harasti, David
Relation: ZooKeys Vol. 934, Issue 19 May 2020, p. 141-156
Publisher Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.934.50924
Publisher: Pensoft
Resource Type: journal article
Date: 2020
Description: A new species and the first confirmed record of a true pygmy seahorse from Africa, Hippocampus nalu sp. nov., is herein described on the basis of two specimens, 18.9–22 mm SL, collected from flat sandy coral reef at 14–17 meters depth from Sodwana Bay, South Africa. The new taxon shares morphological synapomorphies with the previously described central Indo-Pacific pygmy seahorses, H. colemani, H. japapigu, H. pontohi, and H. satomiae, and H. waleananus, including diminutive size, twelve trunk rings, prominent cleithral ring and supracleithrum, spines on the fifth and twelfth superior and lateral trunk ridges, respectively, and prominent wing-like protrusions present on the first and/or second superior trunk rings posterior to the head. Hippocampus nalu sp. nov. is primarily distinguished from its pygmy seahorse congeners by highly distinct spine morphology along the anterior segments of the superior trunk ridge. Comparative molecular analysis reveals that the new species demonstrates significant genetic divergence in the mitochondrial COI gene from the morphologically similar H. japapigu and H. pontohi (estimated uncorrected p-distances of 16.3% and 15.2%, respectively). Hippocampus nalu sp. nov. represents the eighth member of the pygmy seahorse clade to be described from the Indo-Pacific, the first confirmed record from the African continent and the Indian Ocean, and an extension of more than 8000 km beyond the previously known range of pygmy seahorses from the Central and Western Indo-Pacific.
Subject: Africa; COI; cryptobenthic; ichthyology; marine fish; morphology; Sodwana Bay; taxonomy; SDG 14; Sustainable Development Goals
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1436800
Identifier: uon:40139
Identifier: ISSN:1313-2989
Language: eng
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