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<I>Heteroconger Longissimus</I>

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<I>Heteroconger Longissimus</I> 550 BULLETIN OF MARINE SCIENCE, VOL. 57, NO.2, 1995 BULLETIN OF MARINE SCIENCE, 57(2): 550-555, 1995 ABOUT THE TAXONOMIC STATUS OF THE GARDEN-EELS HETEROCONGER LONGISSIMUS GUNTHER 1870 AND HETEROCONGER HALlS (BOHLKE 1957) (PISCES, CONGRIDAE, HETEROCONGRINAE) Gustavo Gonzalez-Lorenzo, Alberto Brito, Jesus M, Falcon and Pedro Pascual-Alayon The relationship between the heterocongrids Heteroconger longissimus Gi.in- ther, 1870 and Heteroconger halis (Bohlke, 1957) has been recently discussed in two papers (Saldanha et aI., 1986; Smith, 1989), H. longissimus was described based on a specimen from Lanzarote (Canary Islands) and subsequently cited in other sectors of the eastern Atlantic (Madeira and Senegal), while H. ha/is was described from Bahamas and later on cited in different areas of the western Atlantic (Panama, Honduras, Florida, Jamaica, Colombia and Lesser Antillas), Saldanha et aI. (1986), in a detailed study of 69 specimens (32 from Madeira, 6 from the Canary Islands, and 2 from Senegal identified as H. longissimus, and 29 from several areas of the western Atlantic identified as H. halis), analysing 22 morphometric parameters they found no great differences, except slight individual variations in the number of the preanal lateral-line pores (45-52 in the specimens from the western Atlantic vs, 46-55 in those from the eastern Atlantic), and a lesser range of total vertebrae in the specimens from the western Atlantic (159- 167 vs. 163-178 in those from the eastern Atlantic). Consequently, they concluded that there is no reason to consider the existence of two different species. Smith (1989), without taking account of the above mentioned paper, carried out a study based on 131 specimens (4 from Madeira, 1 from the Canary Islands, 2 from Senegal and 124 from the western Atlantic) and considered that there are enough differences to retain the two taxa separate species dealing with the number of total vertebrae (157-169 for H. halis vs. 166-175 for H. longissimus) and with the number of preanal lateral-line pores (45-51 for H. halis vs. 51-54 for H. longissimus). Nevertheless, this author remarked that the status and re- lationships between these two species cannot be determined without a further study. In the Canary Islands (located 100-450 km off the coast of northwest Africa) there are dense and extensive colonies of garden-eels inhabiting open-sand sub- strates about 12-50 m deep (Brito, 1991). The aim of the present paper is to solve the discussion about the taxonomic status of these species and to study the vari- ability of those parameters (i.e., number of vertebrae and number of preanallat- eral-line pores) using a large sample size from only a local population located at Tenerife (Canary Islands). MATERIAL AND METHODS Ninety-six specimens (192-588 mm TL) collected on sandy bottom between 12 and 25 m deep at Tabaiba (in the northeastern coast of Tenerife, Canary Islands, Fig. I) were studied. Collection of garden-eels was conducted by SCUBA diving, putting into and over the hole a fair quantity of common salt crystals (NaCl), taken down in a plastic bag, such as described Saldanha et al. (1986). Pore counts and measurements were according to Bohlke (1989). Vertebral counts were made by dissection of the specimens, previously marked the origin of the dorsal and anal fins with a pin. Criteria for counting vertebrae was following to Bohlke (1982). NOTES 551 CANARY ISLANDS Northwest Africa 18 15 Figure 1. Situation of the sampling location in the northeastern coast of Tenerife, Canary Islands. To establish the relationships between the different parameters a correlation analysis was conducted using the SYSTAT analysis program (Wilkinson, 1987). The studied material is deposited in the Ichthyological Collection of the Department of Marine Sciences of the University of La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands (CCML). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The results of the present study are shown in Table 1, together with those obtained by the above mentioned authors (Saldanha et aI., 1986; Smith, 1989), and in Figure 2. The total vertebrae range was 157-179 with an average number of 168.3. We encountered 6 specimens (12.24% of the total) with less total vertebrae than the minimum (163) remarked in the literature for H. longissimus, and 25 (51.02%) included within the overlapping range between the two (163-169). The range from the studied population includes those cited for both H. halis and H. longis- simus. The only predorsal vertebrae range cited in the literature is 7-9 (Smith, 1989). We have obtained a wider range (6-12), although 36 individuals (83.71 % of the cases) were comprised between 7 and 9. The number of preanal vertebrae showed a variation between 49 and 65. The 81.81% of the cases (38 specimens) were comprised between 51 and 58, which 552 BULLETIN OF MARINE SCIENCE, VOL. 57, NO.2, 1995 ••• c: Il.l••• 0..1l.l -.t 2 ti v).V) \0 ;j!;~ 0..0; -< 10 ••..• OJ ~ J,o-.t 1 l-.t «l~ £ ~ -.tV)"" V) t;;V)-.t ..c II ;.::<Vl :8- .0 , ~.5 •...• 5~ 0;~- NN V) -< I ~ u ~ 10;1' V) I I I o '';:: ~-.tN -.t ~ = ••• «l "2-<Il.l-= o = V)_ ~~ ~ -< Vl ~ ~ I I I II' 1vi~ .c~ iV) -.tV) ~~ 1:~ > 2; II OJ ~= 00 ~< -< 0, ~:i £ ~ I I I •...•1 -.t I I I 's V) Vl"" 'tl\O =00 0;0,•...• G'~ g 00 ••.• .l5 ..: ~~ ~ ~ I I I I I I J,oo~ 0,•...• ~ Ii ~~ > ••.•0; OJ ~..c ~ ~ = 0, ~ 0; ""~ -< I 00 'tl 0; ~ I I I -.t I I I «l- I' ..c «l =Vl «l ;.., 32.0 V) «l = 00 0, Vl Il.l 1'....•I' 1'"" ;..,;> -< ION II' 1000, .0'01 ~ ""r--N J,- r--\O-.t ~ \0- \0 V)- 'tl ••• ~ Il.lIl.l .c~ =.0 1:~ - - - .~ a > ~ := !i 0, "8 = \000I' \0 Il.l'<a Fl •...• Vl ~ -< INo, I o 0 ~ 0,\0 I~ I I I ..c- V)- V)I' ~ Il.l 'tl..c = ~ - - «l 0 -6(7):J -_ V) 00 00 V) 00 ••..• - 0; Noo Vl_ V),.;o V) V) 00 \0 ~ 0.. -< I",,-.t I l-.t 1\00, =- ~ ""-.t Il.l0; .c ""-.t ~-.t Vl ••• 00 ;:!; N Il.l:J = •••0.. .!! - 0..;.., Il.l..c OJ ..c~ ~ 0; ~ 00 .•..... ""I' -00 0.0 ,. Il.l -< ""\Cio, ~ ION 00 I I I I I 5'5 :gN I' i5 ;> - Il.l= 0~ ~ a Il.l= Il.l= ~ Il.l 1>O«l ~; 1>00; Il.l= = Il.l ; Il.l ; Il.l .0 0 ~~z !X:~z!X:~z .0~'tl £9:gIl.l Il.l0; \0 .::~ ;>Il.l 00 ~~ ~ 0..1l.l E ~ ~ •.. 0 ~ 0, U t:: ~ 00 & 0 0, 0; Vl 0; 0.. ~.~ .~ ..c •... = - Il.l0.. c: 0; .s Il.l= 'tl Vl :0 a!! '<a 'S ~ ~8~ CIl CIl i:l. NOTES 553 No. of specimens No. of specimens 8 18 7 16 14 12 10 8 3 6 2 2 o o 167 169 181 163 166 187 189 171 173 176 177 179 8 7 8 9 10 n 12 Total vertebrae Predorsal vertebrae No. of specimens No. of specimens 14 10 9 12 8 10 7 8 8 6 6 4 4 3 2 2 0 0 ~W~~~M~~~~W~~~~M~ 47 48 49 60 61 62 63 64 Preanal vertebrae Preanal lateral-line pores Figure 2. Frequency distribution for the number of total vertebrae. predorsal vertebrae, preanal ver- tebrae and preanal lateral-line pores for the garden-eel Heteroconger longissimus collected at Tabaiba, Canary Islands. is the range given by Smith (1989) for the individuals from the Western Atlantic, identified as H. halis. The number of preanal lateral-line pores had a range of 47-54, that is slightly narrower than that one recorded in the literature (46-55) for H. longissimus. The cited range for H. halis is rather smaller (45-52); however, 32 of our specimens (78.05%) are included in this range. 554 BULLETIN OF MARINE SCIENCE, VOL. 57, NO.2, 1995 Table 2. Results of the correlation analysis between different pairs of morphometric and meristic parameters for the garden-eel Heteroconger longissimus collected at Tabaiba, Canary Islands. * accepted level of significance 0.05; ** = accepted level of significance 0.01. Independent variable Dependent variable Total length Total vertebrae Total vertebrae r = 0.1374 N = 49 Predorsal vertebrae r = 0.1969 r=0.1916 N = 38 N = 43 Preanal vertebrae r = 0.2946* r = 0.6218** N = 44 N = 44 Preanal lateral-line r = -0.2185 pores N = 41 We can deduce that the individual variability of the studied population in this paper is quite high and includes all the variation described for H. halis and H. longissimus from the other areas, except a slight difference in the preanal lateral- line pores, which range is smaller for the specimens from the western Atlantic, but it does not seem to be a considerable difference to separate the two species. Similarly to Saldanha et al. (1986), we conclude that H. halis and H. longis- simus are, in fact, the same species, and we shall therefore consider Heteroconger halis (Bohlke, 1957) a junior synonym of Heteroconger longissimus Giinther, 1870. A correlation analysis (Table 2) showed a slight significant correlation between total length-number of preanal vertebrae (P = 0.05, r = 0.2946, N = 44) and between number of total vertebrae-number of preanal vertebrae (P = 0.01, r = 0.6218, N = 44), and the non-existence of correlation between the other analyzed pairs of parameters, so we cannot predict any model pattern for these (i.e., total length-number of total vertebrae, total length-number of predorsal vertebrae, total length-number of preanal lateral-line pores, and number of total vertebrae-num- ber of predorsal vertebrae).
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