Orr and Blackburn: Resurrection of Sebastes variabilis and redescnption of Sebastes ciliatus 



339 



Figure 4 



Distribution of Sebastes ciliatus based on material examined (open circles) and recent National Marine Fisheries 

 Service survey data (closed circles) for the years 1999 to 2002. Each symbol may represent more than one capture. 



ous accessory scales (similar to fringing eyelashes) that 

 are found on the posterior field of the larger scales in most 

 species of Sebastes (Tilesius, 1813). 



Remarks 



Tilesius (1813) based his description of Epinephelus cil- 

 iatus on a single specimen collected in the North Pacific 

 "bordering Kamchatka and America," probably during 

 the Krusenstern expedition of 1803-06 (Bauchot et al., 

 1997; Svetovidov, 1978, 1981; Pietsch, 1995). Although the 

 illustration of the specimen was published (Tilesius, 1813; 

 Fig. 2B), the specimen itself has since been lost, probably 

 before the transfer of the Kunstkammer collection to the 

 Zoological Museum of the Academy of Sciences, St. Peters- 

 burg ( Svetovidov, 1978, 1981). Because S. ciliatus may easily 

 be confused with other dark-colored Sebastes and S. variabi- 

 lis, we have herein designated UW 43493, collected in Lynn 

 Canal of southeast Alaska, as the neotype of S. ciliatus. 



The illustration of the holotype of E. ciliatus Tilesius 

 (1813) depicts a uniformly dark individual of Sebastes, and 

 most of its reported meristics and other characters are 

 consistent with both S. ciliatus and S. variabilis. However, 

 its lateral-line pore count is low at 43, and although falling 

 well within the range found in the material examined of 

 S. ciliatus, the count is represented in only one individual 

 of S. variabilis examined. Along with its low lateral-line 



pore count, a moderate symphyseal knob is illustrated, 

 similar to that of S. ciliatus, excluding its identification 

 as S. melanops, a common and similarly colored Sebastes 

 found within the geographic range of S. ciliatus. 



The anal-fin posterior margin of the specimen illus- 

 trated shows a moderate posterior slant, and tips of the 

 posteriormost rays extend well past those of the anterior 

 rays. Sebastes ciliatus may have an anal fin with a slight 

 posterior slant, unlike S. variabilis, but it is never as 

 pronounced as the illustration indicates. However, this 

 character is not found in any other dark-colored species of 

 Sebastes presently known from the Aleutian Islands and 

 northern Gulf of Alaska west of Kodiak Island. Sebastes 

 entomelas has an anal fin with a strong posterior slant to 

 its posterior margin, but the northernmost record of this 

 species is Kodiak Island (Allen and Smith, 1988; Love, 

 2002 ; Mecklenburg et al., 2002 ) where it is rare ( RACE Di- 

 vision 6 ). Sebastes entomelas also has a much higher count 

 of lateral-line pores (50-60; Love et al., 2002). 



One syntype of Perca variabilis was sent by Martin H. 

 K. Lichtenstein (1780-1857), the director of the Berlin 

 Zoological Museum in 1813, to Georges Cuvier at the Mu- 

 seum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, and has been 

 preserved as MNHN 8670 (Svetovidov, 1981; Fig. 2 A). 

 Although originally from the collections of Carl Heinrich 

 Merck (1761-1799; Svetovidov, 1981; Blanc and Hureau, 

 1968; Bauchot and Desoutter, 1986) and thus contempora- 



