A new species of Pygmy Pipehorse has been described from KwaZulu-Natal, on the eastern coast of South Africa. Cylix nkosi is only the second species in the genus Cylix, with the formerly monotypic type species Cylix tupareomanaia hailing from Aotearoa, New Zealand. C.nkosi is thus the first confirmed record of the genus in South Africa, the African continent, and the western Indian Ocean.
South Africa does have its fair share of syngnathids however, with 27 species of seahorses, pipefish, and pipehorses spanning 12 genera. The new species was first photographed in 2009 and misidentified as Hippocampus nalu. Color variations of males and females were observed and collected in 2017 before the authors collected another female in 2018. Another specimen formerly collected for the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB) in 1987 was later identified as the new representative of Cylix previously discovered in Sodwana Bay.
The Sodwana Pygmy Pipehorse is diminutive in size, the type specimen male and female measuring just 46.6 mm and 45.9 mm long, respectively. The female holotype and male paratype were collected between 14–50 m depth over inshore warm-tropical coral reefs. Africa’s southernmost coral reefs are situated in northern KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa, which are dominated chiefly by soft coral and branching stony corals of the genus Acropora and Pocillopora.
The new species were observed in protected sandy basins in otherwise exposed areas with accumulated debris near flat rocky reefs and observed loosely associating with sandy worm casts, sponges, and small octocorals using the sessile invertebrates as a holdfast for their prehensile tails. Individuals varied in color in situ from uniformly solid red to mustard yellow, or light brown.
The species epithet is derived from the Nguni or Zulu term for chief due to the crown-like nature of the highly derived bony protuberance on the supraoccipital bone.
Citation
Graham Short, Richard Smith, David Harasti, and Louw Claassens “A New Record and Species of Pygmy Pipehorse of the Genus Cylix (Teleostei, Syngnathidae) from South Africa and the African Continent,” Ichthyology & Herpetology 112(3), 315-327, (6 September 2024). https://doi.org/10.1643/i2023053
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