New Species and Expanded Ranges for Striped Hogfish

A new species of striped hogfish (Terelabrus toretore) has been described, adding to the four other species already within the genus. Two specimens of T. toretore were found in 2019 during an ichthyological survey of mesophotic reefs in French Polynesia. The species name, toretore, is a Tahitian word meaning “striped,” in reference to the fish’s color pattern. In addition to the new species, two other specimens of Terelabrus rubrovittatus were collected the same year in the Marshall Islands, representing the first record of the species in that region. The first documentation of Terelabrus zonalis outside of the Philippines was made in 2020 from a specimen collected in the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, along with the first description of the species’ coloration. Finally, a phylogeny of the Terelabrus genus was made using mitochondrial DNA.

credited to Luiz Rocha ^©California Academy of Sciences.

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