Table IV in Junior synonymy of Mulloides armatus and intraspecific comparisons of the yellowstripe goatfish Mulloidichthys flavolineatus (Mullidae) using a comprehensive alpha-taxonomy approach

Table IV. – Counts of (I) high and low dorsal-fin spine detectability, number of pectoral-fin rays and number of lateral-line scales, and (II) number of gill rakers in six populations of Mulloidichthys flavolineatus flavolineatus and in M. f. flavicaudus. For three groups with sufficiently high sample size (n ≥ 20) indicated by letters the results of pairwise comparisons using contingency tables are provided, with pairs of letters in parentheses referring to groups showing no significant differences. 1 only adults; 2 adults and juveniles; * p <0.01; ** p <0.0001.
I1st dorsal-fin Number of spine pectoral-fin detectability1 rays2Number of lateral-line scales2Area/SubspeciesHighLow 15 16 17 1833 34 35 36 37 38SW Pacific957 92 4 52Wake Atoll21321Hawaiian Archipelago91821 72Other areas of Pacific1235 161 9 641Entire Pacific (A)321012 3624 14 22 10 1Indian Ocean (B)17121 19 1614 12 14 1M. f. flavicaudus (C)7213 14 1295 7Fisher’s exact or Chi2 test(A, B) (B, C)** A (B, C)*(A, B) C**IINumber of gill rakers2On upper limb On lower limbIn totalArea/Subspecies78 9 10 18 19 20 21 22 25 26 27 28 29 30 31Western SW Pacific312 18 6 1 127 52Wake Atoll2 12 121Hawaiian Archipelago7 212 6 22 3 41Other areas of Pacific710 41 14 5 16 9 411Entire Pacific (A)1031 8111 28 9 2215 19 851Indian Ocean (B)1024 314 18 4 1611 13 61M. f. flavicaudus (C)1018 1816 5311 11 3 1Chi2 test:ns(A, B) C**(A, B) C*
Juvenile M. flavolineatus differ from the larger adult conspecifics in a shorter snout (8.6-12 vs. 12-16% SL), slightly shallower body and head, slightly shorter jaws, barbels and pectoral fins, and the first dorsal-fin spine being well detectable more often (81.3 vs. 56.6%) (Tab. III, Fig. 3).