Malakichthys formosus, a new species of small seabass (Acropomatiformes: Malakichthyidae) from southwestern Taiwan Author Ng, Shing-Lai Department of Environmental Biology and Fisheries Science, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan Center of Excellence for the Oceans, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan Author Liu, Kwang-Ming George Chen Shark Research Center, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan & Institute of Marine Affairs and Resource Management, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan Author Joung, Shoou-Jeng Department of Environmental Biology and Fisheries Science, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan Center of Excellence for the Oceans, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan & George Chen Shark Research Center, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan text Zootaxa 2023 2023-12-01 5380 4 380 386 https://www.mapress.com/zt/article/download/zootaxa.5380.4.5/52394 journal article 280153 10.11646/zootaxa.5380.4.5 ac0e6a04-e3b0-4e9d-b584-33176aab08b3 1175-5326 10244652 78F509D6-E341-414B-BA87-4D86B29D91F2

TABLE 1. Morphometrics and meristics of Malakichthys formosus and selected congeners.

	M. formosus sp. nov.		M. levis	M. mochizuki
Data of the other species are obtained from Yamanoue & Matsuura (2004).
	Holotype	Paratypes (n=4)	n=55	n=26
Reference	This study		Yamanoue & Matsuura (2004)
SL (mm)	85.4	64.9–74.1	78–188	79.3–140
Dorsal fin	IX+I, 10	IX+I, 9–10	IX+I, 9–10	IX+I, 10
Anal fin	III, 8	III, 8	III, 8	III, 8
Pectoral-fin rays	13	13–14	14	14
Lateral-line scales	54	53–56	49–53	50–52
Scales above/below lateral line	5/12	5–6/11–12	5–7/13–16	4–5/13–16
Gill rakers	9+1+20	8–9+1+20–22	8–11+1+20–23	9–11+1+23–25
Measurements (%SL)
Body depth	28.3	23.6–27.8	26–35	26–31
Depth of caudal peduncle	10.9	9.7–11.3	9.0–12	10–11
Length of caudal peduncle	21.2	23.6–26.2	19–25	22–26
Snout to origin of dorsal fin	35.8	34.8–37.3	37–41	37–41
Snout to origin of anal fin	67.4	63.4–69.0	67–74	66–70
Snout to origin of pectoral fin	34.0	32.5–35.3	33–37	31–37
Snout to origin of pelvic fin	36.8	33.5–35.2	36–44	35–41
Snout to anus	59.4	57.2–58.7	58–67	57–63
Dorsal-fin base	40.0	37.8–41.4	38–44	38–42
Anal-fin base	14.5	13.5–15.0	12–15	12–14
Third dorsal-fin spine	15.0	14.7–16.4	14–19	16–19
Fourth dorsal-fin spine	17.3	14.6–16.4	14–19	14–17
Third anal-fin spine	11.8	10.1–11.1	9.2–13	11–13
Pelvic spine	12.5	10.0–14.0	10–14	9.7–12
Longest dorsal-fin soft ray	15.1	12.5–14.6	11–15	12–14
Longest anal-fin soft ray	10.7	8.7–14.0	9.8–14	9.1–12
Postorbital length of head	18.0	13.8–16.9	14–17	14–17
Head length	35.6	35.7–37.5	35–38	34–38
Head depth	24.0	21.2–23.8	24–30	24–28
Snout length	7.2	6.2–8.2	9.0–12	8.8–11
Bony interorbital width	7.8	6.3–7.6	6.0–8.8	6.1–7.2
Length of orbit	13.7	12.1–14.1	9.6–14	11–13
Upper jaw length	15.5	14.5–18.4	15–18	16–18
Lower jaw length	17.0	16.8–19.8	19–22	19–21