Nemoptera

Abstract: This study is a review of the taxonomic status of the bonefish, Albula nemoptera, formerly placed in the genus Di"o";"". Reasons for synonymizing Di"o";",, with Albula are discusSed, and it is shown that pacifica is conspecific with nemoptera. The Atlantic and Pacific populations of Prior to 1911 the family Albulidae waf! known from several fossil forms and one living species, Albula vulpes (Linnaeus). Fowler (1911) described the second living species, Dixon.ina nemoptera, from a single specimen from Hispaniola. Eight years later a second specimen was recorded by Metzelaar (1919) from Venezuela and a third, from the Pacific coast of Mexico, by Myers (1936). A drawing of a specimen from the Pacific coast of Mexico identified as "Albula vulpes," was published by Kumada and Hiyama (1937). According to Walford (1939), apparently several specimens were available to these authors. Beebe (1942), on the basis of 19 specimens from Costa Rica, proposed the name "Dixon-ina pacifica" for the Pacific coast population. The third Atlantic record (Rivas, 1952) was based on two speci­ mens from Jamaica. Recently Caldwell and Caldwell (1964) recorded, tentatively as "Albul.a 1'"Itlpes," 14 larvae and juveniles from the Atlantic coast of Panama. According to the literature, therefqre, this apparently rare spec.ies of aJ.bulid was hitherto known only from four Atlantic records (7 lar­ vae, 6 juveniles, and 4 adults) and the three Pacific records (21 specimens of which 14 are not traceable).

Abstract: Nucleotide and amino acid sequence data from a 544-bp segment of the mitochondrial cytochrome B (Cytb) gene were used to examine phylogenetic relationships of the Shafted Bonefish, Albula ( = Dixonina) nemoptera, a morphologically distinct bonefish limited to the coastal waters of the eastern Pacific and western Atlantic, among members of the widely distributed and cryptic A. vulpes species complex of Albula (Albuliformes: Albulidae). Phylogenetic trees based on Bayesian and parsimony methods indicated that A. nemoptera from the tropical eastern Pacific (Colima, Mexico) nested within the A. vulpes complex, supporting the placement of the genus Dixonina Fowler, 1911 into the synonymy of Albula Scopoli, 1777. Phylogenetic analyses also showed that A. nemoptera is the sister taxon to the undescribed Albula sp. E from the western Atlantic (Bahia, Brazil), previously placed in the A. vulpes complex. This evidence, together with the presence of a diagnostic amino acid substitution in the translated Cyt...

Abstract: The name Albula nemoptera (Fowler, 1911) is currently applied to the Shafted, or Threadfin, Bonefish (Albuliformes: Albulidae) inhabiting the tropical coastal waters of both the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific. In the present paper I provide a brief review of the taxonomy and nomenclature of A. nemoptera, and argue that the available morphological, biogeographical and molecular evidence supports resurrecting the name A. pacifica (Beebe, 1942) for the population of A. nemoptera from the eastern Pacific.

Abstract: The hitherto unidentified Nemoptera alba Olivier, 1811, is interpreted as being the same species as Nemoptera (Croce) baudii Griffini, 1895, and Nina joppana Withycombe, 1923. — The genital structures of the male of Croce mira McKeown, 1939, are figured and a new genus, Austrocroce, is established for that species. — The male genital structures of Josandreva sazi Navas, 1906, are described.