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Corresponding author: Jesús Briones-Mendoza ( betobriomen@gmail.com ) Academic editor: Ronald Fricke
© 2022 Jesús Briones-Mendoza, Klever Mendoza-Nieto, José Alió, Erick Muñoz-Cedeño, Marcela Garcìa-Zambrano, Joshue Flores-Bailon.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Briones-Mendoza J, Mendoza-Nieto K, Alió J, Muñoz-Cedeño E, Garcìa-Zambrano M, Flores-Bailon J (2022) New finding and description of the Galapagos batfish, Ogcocephalus darwini (Actinopterygii: Lophiiformes: Ogcocephalidae), in marine waters of Manabi, Ecuador. Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 52(3): 223-227. https://doi.org/10.3897/aiep.52.86543
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The finding of a specimen of the Galapagos batfish, Ogcocephalus darwini Hubbs, 1958 in marine waters of continental Ecuador was recorded. The specimen was captured by the artisanal fishing fleet that operates with bottom longlines in Las Piñas fishing cove, Manta Municipality, Manabí province, Ecuador. The specimen was transferred to the Biology Laboratory of the Faculty of Marine Sciences of the Universidad Laica Eloy Alfaro de Manabí, where morphometric data were taken for its identification. Until now, the species was considered endemic to the Galapagos, but it had been reported off northern Peru and now from the Ecuadorian continental shelf.
continental shelf, distribution area, eastern Pacific Ocean, morphology
Batfishes (Ogcocephaloidei: Ogcocephalidae) are members of the order Lophiiformes, which is composed of some 402 extant valid species and includes deep-sea frogfish (Antennarioidei and Ceratioidei), anglerfish (Lophioidei), and marine toadfish (Chaunacioidei) (
Out of 13 valid species of the genus Ogcocephalus only two can be found in the Pacific Ocean: Ogcocephalus porrectus Garman, 1899 and Ogcocephalus darwini Hubbs, 1958. The latter can be easily distinguished from O. porrectus by having a pair of dark stripes on the dorsal disc that extends to the lateral sides of the tail (
One specimen, a female, 21.5 cm SL, was captured in Las Piñas fishing cove, southeast of Manta, Manabi Province, Ecuador, eastern Pacific Ocean (Fig.
The specimen was stored in an ice box and taken to the laboratory of the Faculty of Marine Sciences of the Universidad Laica Eloy Alfaro de Manabí. There, the specimen was weighed, and the morphometric parameters were measured using a Fluke 4190 digital ichthyometer with a precision of 1 mm, or a caliper to the nearest 1 mm. The meristic characteristics, sex, and gonadal maturation were determined. The scale of gonadal maturation followed
Family Ogcocephalidae Gill, 1893
Ogcocephalus Fischer, 1813
Head depressed, raised above disc; disk triangular; snout pointed, with horn-like rostrum projecting well in front of eyes; horn with few short hairs; fish-lure with 3 fleshy tips, in small cavity below horn; spine of lower rear corner of operculum blunt, and poorly developed; gill rakers oval plates covered with small teeth; eyes on sides of head; gill opening high, above pectoral base; pectoral and pelvic fins arm-like; pectorals completely separated from body; small dorsal and anal fins on tail; skin with few projecting small bony plates; flank without fringe of hairs; belly completely covered with bony, pointed scales; under tail densely covered with small spines, and sometimes few conical spines on medial line. Light brown to grayish above, white below; snout and horn dark brown to reddish brown; bright red lips; dark brown stripe (sometimes discontinuous) from top of head to base of tail fin on each side of body. Meristic characters shown in Table
The total weight of the studied specimen was 278.4 g while its total length reached 26 cm. The morphometric characteristics are shown in Table
Morphometry of the specimen of Ogcocephalus darwini found in the fishing cove Las Piñas, Manta Municipality, Manabi, Ecuador.
Character | Value [cm] |
---|---|
Total length | 26.00 |
Standard length | 21.50 |
Body width | 10.88 |
Body depth | 5.41 |
Length at mean width of horn | 1.03 |
Depth at mean base of horn | 1.82 |
Dorsal fin base length | 0.58 |
Pectoral fin length | 2.66 |
Pelvic fin length | 3.26 |
Base of pelvic fins length | 2.21 |
Base of pectoral fin length | 3.26 |
Caudal peduncle length | 6.05 |
Caudal peduncle depth | 1.83 |
Snout length | 2.64 |
Caudal lobe length | 3.20 |
Anal fin length | 2.43 |
Pre-orbital length | 2.97 |
Maximum body height | 5.47 |
Interorbital length | 1.89 |
Ocular diameter | 1.10 |
The sagitta otoliths measured 5.69 × 3.44 mm (Fig.
In continental Ecuador, there was a previous record of the presence of Ogcocephalus darwini published by
The paucity in the detection of fish species typical from the Galapagos Archipelago (GA), like O. darwini, in the continental shelf of Ecuador and northern Peru, could be associated with the occasional arrival of fish larvae from this archipelago. Larval movement could be either in ballast water from vessels traveling between GA and the continent or in water masses loaded with plankton from the surroundings of this archipelago. The area between GA and the South American continental shelf is affected by several oceanic currents, the Southern Equatorial (surface) Current which moves west after receiving the flow of the Humboldt Current, and the Cromwell or Equatorial Undercurrent, moving eastward at depths from 100 to 400 m (
It seems that the occasional arrival of larvae of Ogcocephalus darwini has permitted its recruitment to the continental shelf, but not its dispersal within this new territory for the species. The fact that old fishermen from Las Piñas Cove described that they had not observed this species before, which is characterized not only by its brilliant colors but also its large size, in comparison with other local batfish, reveals that the presence of O. darwini in continental waters is a rare phenomenon and could be related to recent environmental changes occurring worldwide.
It should be noted that the records reported a maximum total length of 25 cm (
We thank Philippe Béarez and Pedro Jiménez for clearing up doubts regarding the finding of the species, and Luis Bravo for the description of the otoliths. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Ogcocephalus darwini images
Data type: images
Explanation note: Photos of the morphology, organs and parasites of the individual Ogcocephalus darwini.