Short communication First record of Cephalopholis formosa (Shaw, 1812) (Perciformes: Serranidae) in the Persian Gulf By P. Tavakoli-Kolour 1 , S. Khatami 2 , A. Barkhordari 1 and A. Farhadi 3 1 Young Researchers and Elites Club, Bandar Abbas Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bandar Abbas, Iran; 2 Department of Marine Biology, Islamic Azad University, Bandar Abbas Branch, Bandar Abbas, Iran; 3 Department of Fisheries, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran Introduction The genus Cephalopholis (Bloch and Schneider 1801) (Perci- formes: Serranidae) contains 22 species, of which most are mysterious groupers inhabiting within or near coral reefs (Heemstra and Randall, 1993). However, only four species of this genus, C. argus, C. hemistiktos, C. miniata and C. sex- maculata, have been reported to occur in the Persian Gulf (Valinassab and Sedghi Marouf, 2013). One of the wide- spread species of this genus is C. formosa, recorded in many places in the Indo-West Pacific region (Heemstra and Ran- dall, 1993), but not in the Persian Gulf. In this study, we report the existence of C. formosa in Iranian waters of the Persian Gulf for the first time, as evidenced through both phenotypic and genetic examination. Materials and methods During an October 2013 study on marine biodiversity in Ira- nian waters of the Persian Gulf, an unidentified fish species was observed coincidentally and photographed. Two fish specimens were captured using a spear-gun in a rocky habitat at a 5m depth southwest (26°49 0 16.7″N, 56°19 0 30″E) of Larak Island. Morphometric measurements were taken using a dial caliper with an accuracy of 0.1 mm, and meristic data were recorded based on Randall and Tay- lor (1988) and Heemstra and Randall (1993). Pyloric append- ages were also investigated as specific morphological characteristics. To ensure phenotypic identification of the specimens, a partial sequence of the mitochondrial COI gene was PCR amplified on caudal fin tissue DNA by Co1-Fish- F: TTCTCAACTAACCAYAAAGAYATYGG and Co1- Fish-R: TAGACTTCTGGGTGGCCRAARAAYCA prim- ers (Hemming, 2012). The polymerase chain reaction product was sequenced (Source BioScience, Nottingham, UK) and aligned with congener species COI sequences deposited in the NCBI GenBank. To ascertain correct identification of the species, a phylogenetic tree of the COI sequences with the maximum likelihood tree was constructed with the bootstrap analysis of 1000. Results Although no study to date has yet reported the sighting of Cephalopholis formosa in the Persian Gulf (see Heemstra and Randall, 1993; Assadi and Dehghani, 1997; Rezai and Savari, 2004; Grandcourt, 2012; Valinassab and Sedghi Marouf, 2013), the results of this study provide the first definitive evi- dence of the existence of this species in the Persian Gulf. Some morphometric characteristics of the two captured C. formosa specimens (174 and 182 mm SL) are presented in Table 1: the dorsal fin is continuous, with nine spines and 17 soft rays; the anal fin has three spines and nine soft rays; the pectoral fin has 16 soft rays; and the pelvic fin contains one spine and five soft rays. The genetic distance of the sequenced specimens from the NCBI reported specimens was 0.2–1% and 6.8–11.1% for within and between species, respectively. The genetic differ- ence between COI sequences of C. formosa and C. boenak was 11% (Fig. 1). Both morphological and genetic evidence confirmed the captured specimens to be C. formosa (Fig. 1, Table 1). Discussion One of the main Serranidae morphological characteristics for accurate species identification is the arrangement and number of pyloric appendages (Roy and Gopalakrishnan, 2011). Table 1 Morphometric characteristics of two Cephalopholis formosa speci- mens captured 17 October 2013 in the Persian Gulf Specimen 2 mm (% SL) Specimen 1 mm (% SL) Morphometric characters 220.3 227.7 Total Length (TL) 174.2 182.4 Standard Length (SL) 69.4 (39.83) 74.2 (40.67) Head Length (HL) 61.4 (35.24) 63.6 (34.86) Body width 109.1 (62.62) 104.3 (57.18) Length of dorsal base 11.1 (6.37) 11.3 (6.19) Eye diameter 50.1 (35.48) 43.7 (23.95) Pectoral fin length U.S. Copyright Clearance Centre Code Statement: 0175-8659/2015/3101–197$15.00/0 J. Appl. Ichthyol. 31 (2015), 197–198 © 2014 Blackwell Verlag GmbH ISSN 0175–8659 Received: February 26, 2014 Accepted: June 1, 2014 doi: 10.1111/jai.12636 Applied Ichthyology Journal of