Zoological Studies

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

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.