First record of Cephalopholis formosa (Shaw, 1812) (Perciformes: Serranidae) in the Persian Gulf

The genus Cephalopholis (Bloch and Schneider 1801) (Perciformes: Serranidae) contains 22 species, of which most are mysterious groupers inhabiting within or near coral reefs (Heemstra and Randall, 1993). However, only four species of this genus, C. argus, C. hemistiktos, C. miniata and C. sexmaculata, have been reported to occur in the Persian Gulf (Valinassab and Sedghi Marouf, 2013). One of the widespread species of this genus is C. formosa, recorded in many places in the Indo-West Pacific region (Heemstra and Randall, 1993), but not in the Persian Gulf. In this study, we report the existence of C. formosa in Iranian waters of the Persian Gulf for the first time, as evidenced through bothphenotypic and genetic examination.

九棘鲈属（Cephalopholis，Bloch and Schneider, 1801）隶属于鲈形目（Perciformes）鮨科（Serranidae），共计22个物种，其中多数为栖息于珊瑚礁内部及周边海域的鲜为人知的石斑鱼类（Heemstra与Randall, 1993）。目前仅在波斯湾海域报道过该属的4个物种：青星九棘鲈（C. argus）、半斑九棘鲈（C. hemistiktos）、橘带九棘鲈（C. miniata）以及六斑九棘鲈（C. sexmaculata）（Valinassab与Sedghi Marouf, 2013）。该属的广布物种之一为美九棘鲈（C. formosa），其在印度-西太平洋区域的诸多海域均有记录（Heemstra与Randall, 1993），但此前从未在波斯湾海域见诸报道。本研究首次报道在波斯湾伊朗海域发现美九棘鲈的分布记录，该结论通过表型（phenotypic）与遗传（genetic）双重检测得以验证。