Orr and Hawkins: Species of the rougheye rockfish complex 
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shorter; rudiments absent. Extrinsic swimbladder mus- 
cle Type I a-z of Hallacher (1974). 
Body color in life light to dark, often heavily mottled. 
Light specimens pink to red and with greenish-black 
spotting below and above the lateral line and on dorsum 
between lateral line and base of dorsal fins, extending 
onto spinous and often soft dorsal-fin membranes, oc- 
casionally with a yellow wash. Dark specimens with 
black to greenish wash over red to pink background 
color, heavily mottled over entire body and spotted at 
and above the lateral line; heavy dark mottling often 
obscuring spotting. Body rarely dusky overall but hav- 
ing diffuse mottling, without spotting. Three white 
blotches often present along base of dorsal fin: anterior 
blotch at base of dorsal-fin spines 2-4, middle blotch at 
base of spines 11-12 and anteriormost rays, posterior 
blotch at base of posteriormost dorsal-fin rays and along 
anterior portion of caudal peduncle. Head light or dark, 
with three vague dusky bands often extending from side 
to side: one across region of nares, a second just poste- 
rior to orbits, and a third at posterior half of parietal 
spines. Head otherwise similar to body coloration, with 
irregular-shaped dark blotch at posterodorsal corner, 
other blotches often present on operculum between orbit 
and lower posterior margin. Iris golden to brassy yellow. 
Orobuccal membranes blotched or dark on pink to red 
background; jaw membranes dusky or dark. Spinous 
and soft dorsal fins variously spotted, on a pink to red 
or dusky background, usually dark along fin margins. 
On spinous dorsal fin, spots commonly in two general 
areas: anteriorly between spines 1-3 and posteriorly 
between spines 5-11. Anal and caudal fins uniformly 
pink to red, dark along fin margin. Paired fins red, rays 
often with dark tips. Peritoneum dusky to dark, rarely 
light or black; stomach, pyloric caeca, and intestines 
pale. See Figures 3 and 4 and the color figures identi- 
fied as S. aleutianus or rougheye rockfish of Kanayama 
and Kitagawa (1982), Amaoka (1984), Kessler (1985), 
Orr et al. (1998, 2000), Love (2002, lower left and upper 
right), and Gharrett et al. (2006, bottom dark form). 
Juveniles in life similar to adults in general body color, 
often with more profuse spotting. After preservation, 
reddish background color fading to light gray, yellow- 
ing with age. Spotting on dorsal fins and dark areas on 
body remaining dark brown to black. 
No sexual dimorphism in morphometric or meristic 
characters is evident. Largest specimen examined 539 
mm (690 mm TL, 660 mm FL; FAKU 119236). 
Distribution and natural history 
The range of Sebastes melanostictus based on material 
examined extends from the Pacific coast of Japan, at 
about 35°N, north through the Kuril Islands, Aleu- 
tian Islands, and the Bering Sea to 60.5°N, and south 
to southern California on Coronado Bank, at 32.6°N 
(Fig. 7). Our material extends the range of S. melanost- 
ictus, previously reported by Hawkins et al. (2005, as S. 
sp. cf. aleutianus ) and Gharrett et al. (2005, 2006, as 
“Type I”), to the western Pacific south of the Bering Sea 
to central Japan and in the eastern Pacific to southern 
California. 
Collected at depths from 84 to at least 490 m, S. 
melanostictus is more common at deeper depths than 
S. aleutianus among material examined (ANOVA, 
F=14.98, df=l, P=0.002; Fig. 8). In the Kuril Islands 
and southeastern Kamchatka, areas where only S. 
melanostictus is known, it is found from 200 to 650 m 
and is most abundant between 350 and 450 m depth 
(Orlov, 2005). Two specimens (UW 116884 and UW 
116885) were recently captured in midwaters of the 
Gulf of Alaska at a maximum gear depth of 500-1000 
m over 1800-1900 m of bottom depth. Nearly 150 mid- 
water tows during surveys conducted by AFSC cap- 
tured S. aleutianus or S. melanostictus (identified as 
S. aleutianus) at depths of 15-3355 m above the bot- 
tom. All were captured north of Washington waters in 
Alaska and Canada (Fig. 9). 
Etymology 
The specific name melanostictus is derived from the 
Greek qfkag for “black” and oxuctog for “spot” referring 
to the spotted body coloration. 
Remarks 
A surprising conclusion of our work is that S. kawara- 
dae is synonymous with S. melanostictus rather than 
S. aleutianus. As described by Matsubara (1934) and 
verified in our examination, the body of the holotype of 
S. kawaradae is dusky and lacks the spotting typically 
present in S. melanostictus. Although this color pat- 
tern is uncommon in S. melanostictus, it is a pattern 
not found in the material examined and identified as S. 
aleutianus by either genetic or morphological analysis 
in this revision. 
Matsubara (1934) published his original description 
of both species in the same paper; S. melanostictus was 
followed immediately by S. kawaradae, each based only 
on the holotype. He distinguished the two by several 
characters, including differences in body color, describ- 
ing S. kawaradae in formalin as dark brown without 
spots as opposed to S. melanostictus , grayish with spots. 
Other characters included peritoneum silvery rather 
than black; orbit length longer than either the interor- 
bital width or snout length versus equal to interorbital 
width or shorter than snout length; infraorbital spines 
5 rather than 4; and lateral line pores 34 rather than 
31. These characters all fall within the range of our 
material of S. melanostictus. 
Later, Matsubara (1943) described additional as- 
pects of the holotype of S. kawaradae, including the 
structure of the infraorbitals and air bladder and 
counts of vertebrae, and compared the holotype with 
S. aleutianus, from which he distinguished it on the 
basis of three characters: a higher gill-raker count 
of 32, narrower interorbital space, and longer second 
anal-fin spine. Matsubara’s (1943) gill raker count 
of 24 for S. aleutianus was apparently repeated from 
