Morphology and molecular evidence support the validity of Pogonias courbina (Lacepède 1803) (Teleostei: Sciaenidae), with a redescription and neotype designation.

MARIA DE LAS MERCEDES AZPELICUETA; SERGIO MATIAS DELPIANI; ALBERTO LUIS CIONE; CLAUDIO OLIVEIRA; ALEXANDRE MARCENOIUK ; JUAN MARTIN DIAZ DE ASTARLOA

PLOS ONE

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

Lugar: San Francisco; Año: 2019

1932-6203

The large family Sciaenidae comprises more than 280 species. The sciaenid blackdrum Pogonias cromis was the only valid species of the genus so far. Herein, wedescribe a new species of the genus, Pogonias macracanthus, based onmorphological and molecular evidence. Pogonias macracanthus n. sp. is distinguished by the following characters: the occurrence of characteristic thickening of the dorsal spines VII to XI in all specimens larger than 250 mm SL; all laminar pterygiophores in the dorsal and anal fins; genetic distance between both species 1%; exclusive occurrence of characters in six informative sites (58 G; 214 G; 328 A; 331 A; 553C; 580 G; ); two monophyletic groups for P. cromis and P. macracanthus appears in trees obtained with different methodologies; absence of haplotypes. In addition, advertisement calls have three times shorter duration in P. macracanthus than in P. cromis. A gap of 8000 km appears in the distribution of both species along coastalareas of Atlantic Ocean.