Hollardia hollardi poey, 1861: first record of family triacanthodidae (actinopterygii: tetraodontiformes) from brazilian marine waters

Paulo Roberto Duarte Lopes ¹, Jailza Tavares de Oliveira-Silva ², Camilla da Cruz Martins ³ and George Olavo ⁴

¹ Magister, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Museu Nacional), Brazil. Professor, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (UEFS), Brazil. Address: Laboratório de Ictiologia, Departamento de Ciências Biológicas. C campus universitário, km 03 (BR-116), Feira de Santana - Bahia, Brasil. 44031-460. e-mail: andarilho40@yahoo.com.br ,

² Magister, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil. Biologist, UEFS, Brazil. e-mail: jtosilva@yahoo.com.br 

³ Biologist, UEFS, Brazil. Professor. e-mail: millamartins@hotmail.com.br 

⁴ Doctor, Universidad Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil. Professor, UEFS, Brazil. e-mail: georgeolavo@uol.com.br 

SUMMARY

The first record of the Triacanthodidae family (Actinopterygii: Tetraodontiformes) from Brazil is documented, based on two specimens (111.0-128.4mm SL) of Hollardia hollardi Poey, 1861, collected off the coast of Bahia, Brazil (13º21.119’S, 38º38.896’W and 20º27.667’S, 39º38.101’W) at depths of 518 and 1680m in June and July, 2000. The two specimens are described and compared with other published records.

Hollardia hollardi poey, 1861: primer registro de la familia triacanthodidae (actinopterygii: tetraodontiformes) en aguas marinas brasileñas

RESUMEN

Se documenta el primer registro de la familia Triacanthodidae (Actinopterygii: Tetraodontiforrmes) en el Brasil, con base en dos ejemplares de Hollardia hollardi Poey, 1861 de 111,0 y 128,4mm de longitud patrón capturados en el litoral del estado de Bahia, nordeste del Brasil (13º21,119’S; 38º38,896’W y 20º27,667’S; 39º38,101’W) entre 518 y 1680m de profundidad en junio y julio del 2000. Ambos especímenes son descritos y comparados con otros registros reportados.

Hollardia hollardi poey, 1861: primeiro registro da família triacanthodidae (actinopterygii: tetraodontiformes) para águas marinhas brasileiras

RESUMO

É apresentado o primeiro registro da família Triacanthodidae (Actinopterygii: Tetraodontiformes) para o Brasil com base em dois exemplares de Hollardia hollardi Poey, 1861 medindo 111,0 e 128,4mm de comprimento padrão coletados em 13º21,119’S, 38º38,896’W e 20º27,667’S, 39º38,101’W (litoral do estado da Bahia, nordeste do Brasil) entre 518 e 1680m de profundidade em junho e julho de 2000. Ambos os exemplares são descritos e comparados com outros registros citados.

KEYWORDS: Brazil / Hollardia hollardi / Marine Teleost / Triacanthodidae /

Received: 03/15/2008. Modified: 02/10/2009. Accepted: 02/13/2009.

Introduction

The members of the Triacanthodidae family (order Tetraodontiformes), known as "spikefishes" or "espinazos", are small fishes (rarely exceeding 20cm in length), occurring in the tropical and subtropical western Atlantic and Indo-Pacific seas. Triacanthodids are not usually utilized as food but sometimes are part of the bi-catch of commercial bottom trawls. The family is comprised of 11 genera and about 21 species (Robins et al., 1986; Tyler in Smith and Heemstra (1986); Cervigón et al., 1992; Cervigón, 1996; Matsuura in Carpenter, 2002; Nelson, 2006). There are no previous records from Brazil.

Materials and Methods

This study is based on two specimens collected by the French "R/V Thalassa" during the Campanha Bahia-2 (2000) as part of the Programa de Avaliação do Potencial Sustentável de Recursos Vivos na Zona Econômica Exclusiva Brasileira - Programa REVIZEE/SCORE Central (SECIRM/MMA/Bahia Pesca). The fish are kept at the Laboratório de Ictiologia (Departamento de Ciências Biológicas), Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (LIUEFS).

Results

Material examined

LIUEFS 4820: collected, possibly, at station E-518 (Campanha Bahia-2 - demersal fishing prospection campaign on the continental slope of central Brazilian coast on board of "R/V Thalassa"), initial latitude of trawling: 13º21.119’S, initial longitude of trawling: 38º38.896’W), on June 19, 2000, at 19:40 and 518m in depth; found inside the bottom-trawling net.

Total length (TL): 145.0mm, standard length (SL): 111.0mm, head length (HL): 45.1mm, snout length (SL): 16.1mm, pre-dorsal length (PDL): 72.9mm, orbital diameter (OD): 15.7mm, post-orbital length (POL): 14.3mm, interorbital width (IW): 4.7mm, body depth (BD): 73.0mm, length of 1st dorsal fin spine (LDS): 28.6mm, caudal peduncle length (CPL): 19.8mm, pelvic length (PL): 33.2mm, pelvic width (PW): 8.9mm, 6 spines, 17 rays in dorsal fin, 12 rays in caudal fin, 14 rays in anal fin, 14 rays in pectoral fins, 1 spine, 1 ray in pelvic fins.

LIUEFS 4925: collected at station E-538 (Campanha Bahia-2 - demersal fishing prospection campaign on the continental slope of central Brazilian coast on board of "R/V Thalassa"), initial latitude of trawling: 20º27.667’S, initial longitude of trawling: 39º38.101’W), on July 2, 2000, at 18:06 and 1680m in depth.

TL: 151.0mm, SL: 128.4mm, HL: 51.6mm, SL: 17.7mm, PDL: 72.9mm, OD: 19.7mm, POL: 17.5mm, IW: 6.0mm, BD: 77.3mm, LDS: 33.8mm, pelvic spine length (PSL): 37.6mm, CPL: 22.9mm, PL: 33.1mm, PW: 9.4mm, 6 spines, 16 rays in dorsal fin, 12 rays in caudal fin, 14 rays in anal fin, 14 rays in pectoral fins, 1 spine, 1 ray in pelvic fins.

Description

Deep body, somewhat compressed laterally, greatest depth at a line just anterior to the base of first dorsal fin spine; well-developed eye; small mouth; body surface covered by small plates, wrinkled to the touch; dorsal fin origin in a position posterior to the gill opening and in the same direction as the superior base of pectoral fin; dorsal fin spines decreasing in size from first to last; pelvic fins spines surpassing a vertical line which passes by the origin of anal fin (except in the specimen LIUEFS 4820 where the spines are broken); spines of dorsal and pelvic fins with denticles; first spine of dorsal fin in the same direction of the base of spine of pelvic fins.

Coloration (in 70% ethanol): general coloration of body is yellowish; dark, undulating lines, more distinct on the upper and middle-superior and median parts of body, or forming reticulations, between the eye and the first spine of the dorsal fin.

Figure 1. Hollardia hollardi Poey, 1861 (LIUEFS 4925).

Discussion

Carvalho Filho (1999), Figueiredo and Menezes (2000), Figueiredo et al. (2002), Menezes et al. (2003), Bernardes et al. (2005), and Bonecker and Castro (2006) do not cite the occurrence of adults or larvae of Triacanthodidae in Brazil. The closest known specimens to Brazil were identified as Hollardia hollardi and were collected between Suriname and French Guiana (Matsuura, 1983) and off Venezuela (Cervigón, 1996).

Matsuura (2002) cites five species of Triacanthodidae in FAO Fishing Area 31 which extends south in western Central Atlantic to off the northernmost part of Brazil’s EEZ, namely H. hollardi, H. meadi, Johnsonina eriomma Myers, 1934, Parahollardia schmidti Woods, 1959 and P. lineata.

H. hollardi reaches 18-20cm in length and occurs from Bermuda and Florida (USA) throughout the Caribbean to the southern Gulf of Mexico and northern South America (Matsuura, 2002; Cervigón, 1996) at average depths usually below 200m down to at least 915m.

Differences and overlaps were observed between the LIUEFS specimens with body proportions of H. hollardi and H. meadi specimens examined by Tyler (1966), and they are presented in Table I. However, body proportions related to head length, body depth, orbital diameter, and snout length in Cervigón (1996) do not coincide with those of the LIUEFS specimens. The ratio between pelvic width and length is 3.5 and 3.7 in the LIUEFS specimens which is closest to the measurements given by Matsuura (2002), 6-7 times in H. meadi and 4-5 times in H. hollardi.

TABLE I

BODy PROPORTIONS IN RELATION TO STANDARD LENGTH FOR LIUEFS 4820 AND LIUEFS 4925 AND COMPARISON WITH SPECIMENS OF H. hollardi AND H. meadi ExAMINED By TyLER (1966)

In addition, the color pattern agrees with Tyler (1966) for H. hollardi but not for H. meadi. In the LIUEFS specimens the dark and undulated lines in the upper anterior part of the body in the specimen LIUEFS 4820, and both in the anterior and posterior regions of the upper part of the body in LIUEFS 4925, are better defined than the specimen described by Cervigón (1996).

This study confirms the occurrence of Triacanthodidae and H. hollardi for the first time for the Brazilian coast. Any observed differences can be attributed to intraspecific variations not yet known for H. hollardi. In addition, the described LIUEFS specimens contribute to a better knowledge of character variation in H. hollardi, and emphasize the need for a better character definition to allow for differentiation between H. meadi and H. hollardi.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the support of Bahia Pesca S.A. and the Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (UEFS) for boarding P.R.D. Lopes and G. Olavo in the "R.V. Thalassa" and incorporating the collected material to the fish collection of UEFS, to the crew of the "R.V. Thalassa" for the aid on board, to the REVIZEE Program/Central SCORE coordination and Gustavo W. Nunan (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) for allowing the release of the material utilized in this study, and to Mauro J. Cavalcanti (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro) for the English translation of the text.

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