Notes on the Groupers of Tahiti, with Description of a 
New Serranid Fish Genus 1 
John E. Randall 
During 1956 and part of 1957 the author car- 
ried out research on the biology of groupers 
(Epinephelinae; Serranidae) and snappers (Lut- 
janidae) in the Society Islands, with the support 
of a fellowship from Yale University and the 
Bernice P. Bishop Museum. The following 12 
species of groupers were discussed in a paper 
by Randall and Brock (I960) which dealt pri- 
marily with food habits of Tahitian fishes: 
Epinephelus merra Bloch 
Epinephelus hexagonatus ( Bloch and 
Schneider ) 
Epinephelus fuscoguttatus ( Forskal ) 
Epinephelus elongatus Schultz 
Epinephelus fasciatus (Forskal) 
Cephalopholis argus (Bloch and Schneider) 
Cephalopholis urodelus ( Bloch and 
Schneider) 
Cephalopholis miniatus ( Forskal ) 
Cephalopholis leopardus (Lacepede) 
Variola louti (Forskal) 
Plectropomus leopardus (Lacepede) 
Plectropomus maculatus (Bloch) 
In addition to the above, a few specimens of 
four rare groupers were collected which were 
not positively identified in the field. Consider- 
able museum research was needed to identify 
these fishes, one of which does not fit into either 
of two genera in which it has been previously 
classified. Further study has necessitated the al- 
teration of the names of two of the more com- 
mon groupers in the list of 12, Epinephelus 
fuscoguttatus and Epinephelus elongatus. Dis- 
cussions of the four rare species and the two 
name changes are presented under separate head- 
ings below. 
Most museum work was carried out at the 
1 Contribution from the Institute of Marine Biology, 
University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. 
Manuscript received August 25, 1963. 
U.S. National Museum (usnm), with the as- 
sistance of Leonard P. Schultz and others of the 
Division of Fishes. Dorothea B. Schultz made 
the drawing of Epinephelus truncatus Katayama. 
STATUS OF Cephalopholis albomarginatus 
After considerable effort a serranid fish un- 
known to the author, which was sighted under- 
water on several occasions in the Tuamotu Ar- 
chipelago, was finally collected at Tetiaroa atoll 
in the Society Islands, near Tahiti. It was ulti- 
mately identified as Cephalopholis albomargi- 
natus Fowler and Bean (1930)- The specimen 
was deposited in the collection of the George 
Vanderbilt Foundation at Stanford University. 
The species has been recorded on only two 
occasions since the original description of East 
Indian and Philippine specimens, once from 
East Africa (Smith, 1954) and once from Al- 
dabra in the Indian Ocean (Smith, 1955); thus 
a record from the Society Islands represents a 
noteworthy range extension. 
Smith elevated the subgenus Aethaloperca 
Fowler (1904), the type species of which is 
Perea rogaa Forskal, to generic rank and in- 
cluded albomarginata. Although not properly 
belonging in Cephalopholis , albomarginata fits 
no better in Aethaloperca; therefore a new genus 
is proposed for this fish. 
Gracila, n. gen. 
DIAGNOSIS. One dorsal fin with nine spines; 
spines of fins slender; supramaxillary bone pres- 
ent; depressible teeth in jaws, those at side of 
lower jaw in a single row medial to a row of 
fixed teeth; a single pair of enlarged canine 
teeth at front of each jaw; head small, the length 
about 3.1 in standard length; depth about 2.6 
in standard length; caudal fin emarginate. 
DESCRIPTION. Dorsal rays IX, 15; anal rays 
III, 9 (rarely 10); dorsal and anal spines mod- 
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