A new species of velvetfish in the genus Pseudopataecus has been discovered in coastal waters of Western Australia.
The Bearded Velvetfish, Pseudopataecus carnatobarbatus (Jeffrey Johnson)
The velvetfish is a ray-finned fish of the class Actinopterygii. It has skin with a velvet texture, uses fins for locomotion and breathes through gills. Some species also have venomous spines.
The study in the journal Zootaxa describes the newly discovered velvetfish, called Pseudopataecus carnatobarbatus or the Bearded Velvetfish, on the basis of 12 specimens collected from shallow coastal reefs of northern Western Australia between the Monte Bello Islands and Adele Island.
“Specimens were collected in rocky tide pools with coral rubble and thick stands of brown macroalgae, especially Padina species,” wrote study author Dr. Jeffrey Johnson, an ichthyologist at the Queensland Museum. “The new species has been found in intertidal areas up to only 13 m deep.”
P. carnatobarbatus measures up to 97 mm in body length and is almost entirely covered in thick greenish-brown mucosa.
“Area immediately surrounding eye lacking mucosa, the underlying skin tan, with numerous short irregular whitish striations radiating from eye,” the researcher wrote. “Dorsal, anal and caudal-fin tips vaguely pale. Caudal fin with irregular pale band across proximal third of fin and with wedge-shaped pale blotch distally in upper two-thirds of fin.”
The species name is derived from Latin words carnatio (for fleshy) and barbatus (for bearded), and refers to the goatee-like beard of fleshy cirri, present around the lower chin of P. carnatobarbatus.
“It is distinguished from its sole congener, P. taenianotus,” Dr. Johnson wrote, “by branched tips to most fin rays, last soft dorsal-fin ray joined by membrane more fully to upper caudal-fin ray, spinous dorsal fin more distinctly notched, pelvic fins more robust, anterior face of lower lip smooth, and a narrow quadrangular pit on the forehead, bounded by frontal, supraorbital, ocular and preocular ridges.”
