A handful of new species of Gobiodon coral gobies have just been described from the Red Sea. The new Gobiodon species were teased out of coral gobies from the marisrubri although several of the species are also known to occur in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Since Gobiodon are scale-less and not extremely distinct in some of their colorations, the new Gobiodon species were identified primarily based on genetic analysis. A couple of the new species are bland but two of the others including Gobiodon fuscoruber and G. irregularis are actually quite attractive.
The dark red Gobiodon fuscoruber pictured above is one of the standouts of the new coral goby species with a brilliant deep red coloration in life and in preserved images. The other neat one, Gobiodon irregularis boasts delicate, tessellated blue lines on a brownish body which fade away to reveal a fish that looks mostly red. The new Red Sea Gobiodon species are described by Herler et. al. in the latest issue of ZooTaxa.
