Three new species of Trimma pygmy gobies have been described, adding to the rapidly growing list of these miniature reef fish which are so diverse and desirable. The new species include Trimma aturirii , Trimma kardium and Trimma trioculatum, all of them quite the lookers in their own right.
Trimma trioculatum is a gorgeous little lemondrop of a pygmy goby that was found living in Cenderawasih Bay, in the northern portion thereof off the shores of West Papua Province. The three-eyed pygmy goby is named for the large ocellus in its dorsal fin, thereby giving it a false eyespot in addition to its two actual eyes. Besides the eyespot in the anterior portion of the first dorsal fin, Trimma trioculatum has an lemon yellow coloration with a purplish blue dusky face mask and two lightly visible red stripes below the eyes.
Trimma kardium looks almost identical in overall coloration to the three-eyed pygmy goby mentioned above but it doesn’t have the eyespot in its dorsal fin, and its face is a brighter reddish pink. The Heart pygmy goby was described from specimens living all over West Papua Province, from Triton Bay in the south, Raja Ampat in the west, and Cenderawasih Bay in the north.
Trimma aturirii was discovered and collected from the West Papua province of Indonesia, where it is only currently known to occur on oceanic atolls at depths of 38 to 70 meters (125 to 230 feet). The newly described Aturiri’s pygmy goby has a ‘bipartite’ coloration wherein the top part of the body is colored reddish brown while the bottom half of the body is a light pink to almost flat white.
All three new species of Trimma pygmy gobies were described by Winterbottom, Erdmann & Cahyani in the newest edition of ZooTaxa.
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