Speckled Grouper, Epinephelus magniscuttis Postel, Fourmanoir & Guézé 1963

Other Names: Spotted Grouper

Speckled Grouper, Epinephelus magniscuttis. Source: Australian National Fish Collection, CSIRO. License: CC by Attribution-NonCommercial

Summary:

A pale brown grouper with small dark brown to greyish-green spots unevenly scattered on the upper head, body, dorsal and caudal fins, a dark bar on the cheek above the upper jaw, and a row of close-set spots running in a line from behind the eye. The Speckled Grouper has no spots below the level of the pectoral fins or on the anal fin or paired fins.

Cite this page as:

Bray, D.J. 2019, Epinephelus magniscuttis in Fishes of Australia, accessed 08 Dec 2024, https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/3854

Speckled Grouper, Epinephelus magniscuttis Postel, Fourmanoir & Guézé 1963

More Info

Distribution	Occurs at scattered localities in the Indo-West Pacific: South Africa, Mozambique, Réunion, Mauritius, Philippines, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea, Australia (Western Australia and Great Barrier Reef, Queensland), New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga in depths of 50–300 m. Inhabits deep rocky and coral reefs.
Features	Dorsal fin II, 14-15; Anal fin III, 8. Body depth 2.7-3.2 times in SL; head length 2.2-2.4 times in SL; interorbital area flat to convex; dorsal head profile almost straight; preopercle angular, 2-4 distinctly enlarged serrae at angle; upper edge of operculum slightly convex; posterior nostril not much larger than anterior nostril; maxilla reaches below rear half of eye, ventral edge with low step at the distal expansion; 2 rows of teeth on midlateral part of lower jaw, inner teeth larger than those in outer row.
Fisheries	The species is of minor commercial importance in parts of its range.
Species Citation	Epinephelus magniscuttis Postel, Fourmanoir & Guézé 1963, Mémoires de l'Institut Français d'Afrique Noire 68: 365, fig. 9. Type locality: Réunion, western Mascarenes, southwestern Indian Ocean.
Author	Bray, D.J. 2019
Resources	Atlas of Living Australia Australian Faunal Directory Catalog of Fishes

Speckled Grouper, Epinephelus magniscuttis Postel, Fourmanoir & Guézé 1963

References

Allen, G.R. 1997. Marine Fishes of Tropical Australia and South-east Asia. Perth : Western Australian Museum 292 pp. 106 pls.

Fennessy, S.T. & Russell, B.C. 2011. Epinephelus magniscuttis Postel, Fourmanoir and Guézé, 1963. pp. 180–182 in Craig, M.T., Sadovy de Mitcheson, Y.J. & Heemstra, P.C. Groupers of the World: a Field and Market Guide. Grahamstown, South Africa : NISC Ltd 356 pp., Appendix 47 pp.

Fry, G.C., Brewer, D.T. & Venables, W.N. 2006. Vulnerability of deepwater demersal fishes to commercial fishing: Evidence from a study around a tropical volcanic seamount in Papua New Guinea. Fisheries Research 81: 126-141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fishres.2006.08.002

Gloerfelt-Tarp, T. & Kailola, P.J. 1984. Trawled Fishes of Southern Indonesia and Northwest Australia. Jakarta : Dir. Gen. Fish. (Indonesia), German Tech. Coop., Aust. Dev. Ass. Bur. 406 pp.

Heemstra, P.C. & Randall, J.E. 1993. Groupers of the World (Family Serranidae, Subfamily Epinephelinae). An annotated and illustrated catalogue of grouper, rockcod, hind, coral grouper and lyretail species known to date. FAO Fisheries Synopsis No. 125 Vol. 16. Rome: FAO. pp. 1-382

Heemstra, P.C. & Randall, J.E. 1999. Family Serranidae. pp. 2442-2548 in Carpenter, K.E. & Niem, T.H. (eds). The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fisheries Purposes. Rome : FAO Vol. 4 pp. 2069-2790.

Johnson, J.W. & Worthington Wilmer, J. 2019. Epinephelus fuscomarginatus(Perciformes: Epinephelidae), a new species of grouper from off the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Zootaxa 4674(3): 329-348. http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4674.3.2

Kramer, S., Kramer, S. & Newman, S. 1993. Potential deep reef slope fishery resource of the Great Barrier Reef. Australian Fisheries 52(1): 18-21

Kramer, S.H., Kramer, S.M. & Newman, S.J. 1994. New deep-water fish records from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Pacific Science 48(1): 70-79

Ma, K.Y. & Craig, M.T. 2018. An inconvenient monophyly: an update on the taxonomy of the groupers (Epinephelidae). Copeia 106(3): 443-456.

Nakamura, J., Takayama, M., Worthington Wilmer, J., Johnson, J.W. & Motomura, H. 2018. First Japanese record of the speckled grouper Epinephelus magniscuttis (Perciformes: Serranidae) from the Osumi Islands. Species Diversity 23: 225-228. https://doi.org/10.12782/specdiv.23.225, open access

Postel, E., Fourmanoir P. & Guézé, P. 1963. Serranidés de la Réunion. Mémoires de l'Institut Français d'Afrique Noire 68: 339-384 16 figs

Randall, J.E. & Heemstra, P.C. 1991. Revision of Indo-Pacific groupers (Perciformes: Serranidae: Epinephelinae), with descriptions of five new species. Indo-Pacific Fishes 20: 1-332

Russell, B. 2018. Epinephelus magniscuttis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018: e.T132784A100551033. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T132784A100551033.en. Downloaded on 08 October 2019.