Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand abstracts

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Taxonomic status of the Tarndale bully Gobiomorphus alpinus (Teleostei: Eleotridae), revisited - again

R. M. McDowall¹ and M. I. Stevens²

¹National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, PO Box 8602, Christchurch 8440, New Zealand.

²Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Massey University, Private Bag 11222, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand and School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton 3800, Victoria, Australia.

Abstract   The taxonomic status of Gobiomorphus alpinus Stokell (1962) has recently been questioned. It is a localised endemic in the Tarndale lakes, submontane tarns at c. 1050 m elevation in inland Marlborough, South Island. Suggestions that this species is an ecophenotype of the widespread, amphidromous G. cotidianus McDowall, 1975 are refuted, and we discuss evidence that basing this conclusion on limited molecular data is of dubious worth. More broad-based molecular comparisons, re-examination of meristic and morphometric data, and comparisons of data on the Tarndale bully populations with specimens of G. cotidianus from another high elevation tarn, affirm the taxonomic distinctness of G. alpinus. In the absence of appropriate high resolution molecular data (e.g., quantitative trait loci, AFLPs, etc), we conclude that the Tarndale populations warrant taxonomic recognition, and a level of conservation consistent with their range-restricted endemism.

Keywords   biogeography; conservation; Gobiomorphus; mitochondrial DNA; morphometrics; New Zealand

R06010; Received 19 July 2006; accepted 9 February 2007; Online publication date 2 March 2007

 Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand;
Volume 37, Number 1, March, 2007, pp 15 - 29

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