New record of a goby Astrabe flavimaculata from Shikoku Island, southern Japan with notes on the distribution of the genus Astrabe (Perciformes: Gobiidae)

Abstract

The occurrence of a shallow water marine goby, Astrabe flavimaculata Akihito and Meguro, 1988, is first reported from Shikoku Island, southern Japan, on the basis of a single 32.1mm SL specimen from the Yokonami Peninsula, Kochi Prefecture. The present new locality fills the known geographic gap for this species between the Pacific coast of central Honshu and southern Kyushu. The distribution of the genus Astrabe considered to be endemic to Japanese waters is also discussed.