Bull. Natl. Mus. Nat. Sci., Ser. A, Suppl. 2, pp. 47–57, March 21, 2008 Acanthopagrus chinshira, a New Sparid Fish (Perciformes: Sparidae) from the East Asia Masayuki Kume* and Tetsuo Yoshino Department of Marine Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of the Ryukyus, 1 Senbaru, Nishihara, Okinawa 903–0213, Japan E-mail:
[email protected] * Present address: EAC Co. Ltd., 3–34–17 Yafuso, Urasoe, Okinawa 901–2127, Japan Abstract A new sparid fish, Acanthopagrus chinshira, is described on the basis of specimens collected from Nakagusuku Bay and Haneji Inlet, Okinawa Island, the Ryukyu Islands, Japan. Al- though the present new species has been often misidentified as Acanthopagrus australis (Günther), morphological and genetic evidence showed that it is clearly different from the latter species. This species is distinguished from the other congeners by having the following combination of charac- ters: pale (yellow when fresh) pelvic and anal fins, dorsal-fin rays XI, 11, 4 1/2 scale rows between lateral line and base of middle dorsal spine, 6 rows of cheek scales; no diffuse black blotch at ori- gin of lateral line, and no black spot on upper base of pectoral fin. This species is currently known from Okinawa Island, Japan, northwest coast of Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Key words : Sparidae, new species, Acanthopagrus chinshira, East Asia, Okinawa Island. The sparid fishes of the genus Acanthopagrus name it simply as “scale rows above lateral line”, are coastal marine fishes that are important as which is the number of scale rows from the base food fishes in tropical and temperate waters of of fifth or sixth dorsal-fin spine downward and the Indo-West Pacific.