Munroe: Western Atlantic tonguefishes of the Symphurus plagusia complex 



269 



Symphurus tessellatus 

 (Quoy and Gaimard 1824) 

 Figures 2, 3, 4c, 6a 



Synonymy 



Plagusia tessellata Quoy and Gaimard 1824:240 (counts 

 and color description; Rio de Janeiro Bay [= Guana- 

 bara Bay], Brazil). 



Plagusia brasiliensis Agassiz, in Spix and Agassiz 

 1831:89 (counts, color description, and figure; Bahia, 

 Brazil). Castelnau 1855:79 (brief description and 

 figure). Whitehead and Myers 1971:495 (nomencla- 

 ture and dating of Spix and Agassiz' s Brazilian 

 Fishes). Kottelat 1984:150 (listed in type catalogue 

 of MHNN). Kottelat 1988:79 (nomenclature and 

 type status of species described in Spix and Agassiz's 

 Brazilian Fishes). 



Aphoristia ornata. Kaup 1858:106 (in part) (synony- 

 my; listed, South America). Giinther 1862:490 (in 

 part) (synonymized with S. plagusia Schneider, in 

 Bloch and Schneider 1801; brief description; counts; 

 Atlantic coasts of tropical America). Kner 1865-67: 

 292 (listed, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). 



Symphurus plagusia (not of Schneider, in Bloch and 

 Schneider). Jordan and Goss 1889:324 (in part) 

 (synonymy; in key; brief description; nomenclature; 

 West Indies to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). Jordan and 

 Evermann 1898:2709 (in part) (after Jordan and Goss 

 1989). Berg 1895:79 (in part) (Mar del Plata-Monte- 

 video; counts include those for S. jenynsi). Thomp- 

 son 1916:416 (in part) (after Jordan and Goss; counts, 

 measurements, brief color description). Devincen- 

 zi 1920:135 (Rio de la Plata; distinguished from S. 

 jenynsi). Devincenzi 1924-26:281 (listed, Uruguay; 

 counts). Meek and Hildebrand 1928:1005 (in part) 

 (color description; counts; Panama). Puyo 1949:178 

 (in part) (French Guyana; figure, counts, color de- 

 scription). Lowe-McConnell 1962:694 (in part) 

 (listed, British Guiana). Caldwell 1966:84 (collec- 

 tions from offshore localities, Jamaica). Menezes 

 and Benvegmi 1976:142 (synonymized with S. plagu- 

 sia). Soares 1978:23 (listed, Rio Grande do Norte, 

 Brazil; counts, color description, and figure). Lema 

 et al. 1980:44 (Rio de la Plata region, Rio Grande do 

 Sul, Brazil; synonymy). Rosa 1980:222 (in part) 

 (listed, nearshore and estuarine habitats, Paraiba, 

 Brazil). Lucena and Lucena 1982:56 (listed, collec- 

 tions in southern Brazil). Matsuura in Aizawa et al. 

 1983:463 (listed, French Guiana and Surinam; counts, 

 measurements, color photograph). 



Aphoristia fasciata (not of DeKay). Goode and Bean 



1896:458 (in key and figured; Jamaica). 

 Symphurus plagusia tessellata. Ginsburg 1951:199 

 (diagnosis and description of subspecies from Brazil- 

 Uruguay). Ringuelet and Aramburu 1960:91 (in 



key; figure; synonymy; listed, Argentina). Carvalho 

 et al. 1968:22 (in part) (synonymy; in key; brief de- 

 scription; occurrence in northern Brazil). Lazzaro 

 1973: 247 (in key; distribution in southern Brazil and 

 Uruguay). Palacio 1974:87 flisted, north of Puerto, 

 Colombia). Lazzaro 1977:70 (in key). Lema and 

 Oliveira 1977:7 (recorded from Santa Catarina, Bra- 

 zil; in key; suggested that S. civitatium, S. tessella- 

 tus, and S. plagusia are geographic races of the same 

 species). 



Symphurus plagusia plagusia (not of Schneider, in 

 Bloch and Schneider). Cervigon 1966:816 (listed, 

 Venezuela; probably S. tessellatus based on high 

 meristic features, color description, and large sizes 

 reported). Palacio 1974:87 (in part) (Colombia; spe- 

 cimens listed as S. p. plagusia were misidentified). 



Symphurus pterospilotus (not of Ginsburg). Lema and 

 Oliveira 1977:7 (in part) (specimens misidentified). 



Diagnosis A Symphurus with the following combina- 

 tion of characters: predominant 1-4-3 ID pattern; 12 

 caudal fin rays; unpigmented peritoneum; distinct, 

 dark-brown or black, almost spherical blotch on the 

 outer surface of the ocular-side opercle; 4-8 small 

 ctenoid scales on the blind sides of the dorsal and anal 

 fin rays (best developed on fin rays in posterior one- 

 third of body in specimens >70mm SL); lacking a fleshy 

 ridge on the ocular-side lower jaw; 91-102 dorsal fin 

 rays; 77-86, usually 78-84, anal fin rays; 49-54, usually 

 50-53, total vertebrae; 81-96, usually 83-93, scales in 

 a longitudinal series; moderately long jaws usually ex- 

 tending to the vertical line through the middle or 

 posterior margin of pupil of lower eye; moderately- 

 sized eye (79-114 HL, x 95) without pupillary opercu- 

 lum; dorsal fin origin reaching the vertical line through 

 the anterior margin of the upper eye, or occasionally 

 only reaching the vertical through the middle of the 

 upper eye; ocular surface dark- to light-brown, with 5-9 

 well-developed, sharply contrasting, relatively wide, 

 dark-brown crossbands on head and trunk; inner lining 

 of opercle and isthmus heavily pigmented on both sides 

 of body; dorsal and anal fins without an alternating 

 series of pigmented blotches and unpigmented areas; 

 anterior dorsal and anal fin rays usually streaked with 

 brown pigment; fin rays and membranes of dorsal and 

 anal fins on posterior two-thirds of body becoming pro- 

 gressively darker posteriorly; males with posteriormost 

 regions of fins almost uniformly black, while in females, 

 posterior portions of fins, although darker than an- 

 terior regions, usually dark-brown and not as intensive- 

 ly pigmented as in mature males. 



Description A large tonguefish, attaining adult sizes 

 to 220mm SL. ID pattern (Table 1) usually 1-4-3 

 (170/231 specimens), less frequently 1-5-3 (14), 1-4-2 



