First Japanese Specimen-based Records of Cypho zaps (Perciformes: Pseudochromidae) from Yonaguni-jima Island, the Yaeyama Islands

Abstract

Three specimens (31.6–38.2 mm standard length) of Cypho zaps Gill, 2004 (Pseudochromidae), previously known from voucher specimens only from Indonesia, the Philippines, and southern Taiwan, were collected off Yonaguni-jima island, Yaeyama Islands, southern Ryukyu Islands. They were clearly distinguished from the only known other congener, C. purpurascens (De Vis, 1884), by the staggered arrangement of the dark vertical lines in the center of each body scale, which do not form continuous bars as they do in the latter species. These specimens represent the first records of C. zaps from Japan supported by voucher specimens, and the northernmost distributional records of the species.