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ZooKeys 306: 71–81 (2013)
A new Haptoclinus blenny (Teleostei, Labrisomidae) from deep reefs off Curaçao...
doi: 10.3897/zookeys.306.5198
Research article
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A new Haptoclinus blenny (Teleostei, Labrisomidae) from deep reefs off Curaçao, southern Caribbean, with comments on relationships of the genus Carole C. Baldwin1,†, D. Ross Robertson2,‡ 1 Department of Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560 2 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Republic of Panamá † urn:lsid:zoobank.org:author:B21379DC-6FF2-4C99-89FC-F9FD5B30911D ‡ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:author:AD0D80E1-BEAB-4F95-8594-3B1E5774FA18 Corresponding author: Carole C. Baldwin (baldwinc@si.edu) Academic editor: Nina Bogutskaya | Received 23 March 2013 | Accepted 27 May 2013 | Published 4 June 2013 urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:3E19FCB4-29D8-4C7F-B9C3-C3AE1C65050B Citation: Baldwin CC, Robertson RD (2013) A new Haptoclinus blenny (Teleostei, Labrisomidae) from deep reefs off Curaçao, southern Caribbean, with comments on relationships of the genus. ZooKeys 306: 71–81. doi: 10.3897/ zookeys.306.5198
Abstract A second species of the blenniiform genus Haptoclinus is described from deep reefs off Curaçao, southern Caribbean. Haptoclinus dropi sp. n. differs from the northwestern Caribbean H. apectolophus Böhlke and Robins, 1974, in having 29 total dorsal-fin elements—III-I-XIII, 12 (vs. 31—III-I-XIV, 13 or III-I-XIII, 14); 19 anal-fin soft rays (vs. 20-21); 12 pectoral-fin rays (vs. 13); 12 precaudal vertebrae (vs. 13); and the first dorsal-fin spine longer than the second (vs. the second longer than the first). It further differs from H. apectolophus in lacking scales (vs. three-quarters of body densely scaled), in having a distinctive pattern of spotting on the trunk and fins in preservative (vs. no spotting), and in lacking a fleshy flap on the anterior rim of the posterior nostril (vs. flap present). Color in life is unknown for H. apectolophus, and the color description presented for the new species constitutes the first color information for the genus. Familial placement of Haptoclinus remains questionable, but the limited relevant information obtained from morphological examination of the new species provides additional support for a close relationship with the Chaenopsidae. Haptoclinus dropi represents one of numerous new teleost species emerging from sampling to 300 m off Curaçao as part of the Smithsonian Institution’s Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP). Keywords Blenniiformes, submersible, Substation Curaçao, Haptoclinus apectolophus, Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP) Copyright C.C. Baldwin, D.R. Robertson. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 (CC-BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.