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Fishery Bulletin 100(4) 



t 



Figure 1 



Photograph of the creole-fish (top), Paranthicis furcifer. the coney (bottomi, Cephalophulis fulva. and the puta- 

 tive hybrid (middle), Bermuda. (Courtesy of Jan Cordes. > 



caudal fin and the size and shape of its mouth (Fig. 1). 

 Paranfhias furcifer- is dark red in color; darker dorsally, 

 lightening ventrally (Heemstra and Randall, 1993). There 

 is an orange spot at the upper end of the base of the pecto- 

 ral fin and three white spots dorsal to the lateral line. Ber- 

 muda is the northern limit of the distribution of P. fiarifer 

 in the western Atlantic and the species occurs throughout 

 the Bahamas and Antilles and along the American coast 

 from the Gulf of Mexico south to Brazil (Smith, 1971; 

 Smith-Vaniz et al., 1999). 



In contrast, C. fulva is usually scarlet in color and cov- 

 ered with light blue-green spots, each surrounded by a 

 black ring (Heemstra and Randall. 1993). There are two 

 black spots on the edge of the lower jaw as well as on top 

 of the caudal peduncle. CephalophoUs fulva has rounded 

 caudal, anal, and dorsal fins, similar to fins of other 

 epinepheline serranids (Heemstra and Randall. 1993) 

 (Fig. 1). In the northwestern Atlantic. C. fulva has a distri- 

 bution similar to that of P. furcifer; it occurs as far north 

 as Bermuda, throughout the Bahamas, Antilles, and along 

 the east coast of the Americas from South Carolina to 



Brazil (Heemstra and Randall. 1993; Smith, 1971; Smith- 

 Vaniz etal., 1999). 



Morphologically, the putative hybrids are almost e.xactly 

 intermediate to the parent species (Fig. 1). In his 1966 re- 

 view. Smith noted that the hybrids have some characters 

 unique to C. fulva and P. furcifer. For example, the puta- 

 tive hybrid individuals have both a moderately forked tail 

 and blue spots surrounded by a black ring. Paranthias 

 furcifer is the only Atlantic grouper with a forked tail sug- 

 gesting that it is one of the putative parents and C. fulva is 

 the only Atlantic grouper that has blue spots with a black 

 ring. Presence of both traits together in a single individual 

 strongly suggests interbreeding between the two species. 

 The geographic extent of the putative hybrid is not well 

 known; however specimens exist from Cuba and Bermuda 

 (Smith-Vaniz et al.. 1999). and it has been reported from 

 Jamaica (Thompson and Munro. 1978). 



Hybridization has traditionally been detected by using 

 morphological characters, but increasingly, genetic analy- 

 ses have also been used for this purpose. Allozyme elec- 

 trophoresis provides a rapid and cost-effective method to 



