Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand abstracts

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Additions to the New Zealand marine eel fauna with the description of a new moray, Anarchias supremus (Teleostei: Muraenidae), and comments on the identity of Gymnothorax griffini Whitley & Phillips

John E. McCosker¹ and Andrew L. Stewart²

¹California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, USA 94118-4599. jmccosker@calacademy.org
²Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, P.O. Box 497, Wellington, New Zealand. andrews@tepapa.govt.nz

Abstract  Anarchias supremus new species is described on the basis of a specimen dredged at 154 m off Macauley Island, Kermadec Ridge, and differs from its congeners in its coloration, dentition, and high vertebral number. Four other eels are added to the New Zealand ichthyofauna comprising, at the Kermadecs, the morays Anarchias cf. seychellensis, Gymnothorax berndti, and Gymnothorax ypsilon, and from Northland, the snake eel Apterichtus flavicaudus. Data are provided for the moray Gymnothorax eurostus and the snake eel Myrichthys maculosus, listed by Francis (1993) as new records from the Kermadecs, but lacking data. Gymnothorax griffini Whitley & Phillips 1939 is placed in the synonymy of Gymnothorax porphyreus (Guichenot, 1848).

Keywords  Muraenidae; Anarchias supremus sp. nov.; new records; Gymnothorax griffini; Ophichthidae

R05017; Received 19 December 2005; accepted 2 June 2006; Online publication date 9 June 2006
Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand
Volume 36, Number 2, June, 2006, pp 83–95

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