Hippocampus nalu, a new species of pygmy seahorse from South Africa, and the first record of a pygmy seahorse from the Indian Ocean (Teleostei, Syngnathidae).

ABSTRACT: A new species and the first confirmed record of a true pygmy seahorse from Africa, Hippocampus nalu sp. nov., is herein described on the basis of two specimens, 18.9-22 mm SL, collected from flat sandy coral reef at 14-17 meters depth from Sodwana Bay, South Africa. The new taxon shares morphological synapomorphies with the previously described central Indo-Pacific pygmy seahorses, H. colemani, H. japapigu, H. pontohi, and H. satomiae, and H. waleananus, including diminutive size, twelve trunk rings, prominent cleithral ring and supracleithrum, spines on the fifth and twelfth superior and lateral trunk ridges, respectively, and prominent wing-like protrusions present on the first and/or second superior trunk rings posterior to the head. H

SUBMITTER: Short G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7253503 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature