Indian Ocean record of Brachypterois curvispina Matsunuma, Sakurai & Motomura, 2013 (Scorpaenidae: Pteroinae) – a misidentification of B. serrulifer Fowler, 1938

Abstract

Brachypterois curvispina Matsunuma, Sakurai & Motomura, 2013, previously known only from northeastern Australia, has been recently recorded from India. However, examination of the detailed description given for the supposed B. curvispina specimens showed them to be identical with B. serrulifer Fowler, 1938, distributed in the Indo-West Pacific region. In contrast, B. curvispina and a third congener, Brachypterois serrulata (Richardson, 1846), are restricted to the Coral Sea (off northeastern Australia) and the northwestern Pacific Ocean from the South China Sea north to Japan, respectively.