Cryptocentrus steinhardti (Actinopterygii; Gobiidae): a new species of shrimp-goby, and a new invasive to the Mediterranean Sea

Menachem Goren; Nir Stern

doi:10.7717/peerj.12136

Cryptocentrus steinhardti (Actinopterygii; Gobiidae): a new species of shrimp-goby, and a new invasive to the Mediterranean Sea

PeerJ. 2021 Sep 28:9:e12136. doi: 10.7717/peerj.12136. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Menachem Goren^#¹, Nir Stern^#²

Affiliations

¹ School of Zoology, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life and Sciences and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
² Marine Biology, Israeli Oceanographic and Limnological Research Institute, Haifa, Israel.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

A new species of shrimp-goby was collected at depths of 60-80 m off the southern Israeli Mediterranean coast. A unique 'DNA barcoding' signature (mtDNA COI and Cytb) revealed that it differs from any other previously bar-coded goby species clustered phylogenetically with the shrimp-gobies group, in which Cryptocentrus is the most speciose genus. A morphological study supported the assignment of the fish to Cryptocentrus and differentiated the new species from its congeners. The species is described here as Cryptocentrus steinhardti n. sp. However, the present phylogenetic analysis demonstrates a paraphyly of Cryptocentrus and emphasizes the need for revision of the genus based on integrating morphological and genetic characteristics. This finding constitutes the third record of an invasive shrimp goby in the Mediterranean Sea. An intriguing ecological issue arises regarding the possible formation of a fish-shrimp symbiosis in a newly invaded territory. Describing an alien tropical species in the Mediterranean prior to its discovery in native distribution is an unusual event, although not the first such case. Several similar examples are provided in the present article.

Keywords: Integrative taxonomy; Lessepsian migration; Mediterranean Sea; New species; Shrimp-goby.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection as part of the national monitoring project of the Israeli Mediterranean Sea. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.