Vol. 51 No. 3, 2012

The Blue Velvet Angelfish Centropyge deborae sp. nov., a New Pomacanthid from the Fiji Islands, Based on Genetic and Morphological Analyses

Kang-Ning Shen¹, Hsuan-Ching Ho^2,3, and Chih-Wei Chang^2,3,*

¹Institute of Fisheries Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan
²National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, Checheng, Pingtung 944, Taiwan
³Institute of Marine Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, National Dong Hwa University, Checheng, Pingtung 944, Taiwan

Kang-Ning Shen, Hsuan-Ching Ho, and Chih-Wei Chang (2012) A new species of angelfish, Centropyge deborae sp. nov., is described from 6 specimens collected in the Fiji Is. It is morphologically similar to the midnight angelfish C. nox, but differs in having a metallic-blue luster over the black ground color of the fish, black pectoral-fin rays with a transparent fin membrane when alive, and 13 or 14 dorsal-fin spines, and by lacking a yellowish patch at the pectoral-fin base. Genetic analyses of mitochondrial 16S and cytochrome oxidase subunit I and nuclear ETS2 markers confirmed a species-level separation of C. deborae sp. nov., and rejected the hypothesis that C. deborae sp. nov. is a suspected hybrid of the sympatric congeners C. nox and C. tibicen or C. bispinosa, each of which also bears a metallic-blue luster.

Key words: Centropyge nox, New species, Hybridization.

*Correspondence: Tel/Fax: 886-8-8825044. E-mail:changcw@nmmba.gov.tw