A review of the Australasian genus Pseudophycis (Gadiformes: Moridae), redescribing its four species and resurrecting the name Physiculus palmatus Klunzinger, 1872, for the Australian Red Cod

Abstract

Gomon, M.F., Struthers, C.D. and Kemp, J. 2021. A review of the Australasian genus Pseudophycis (Gadiformes: Moridae), redescribing its four species and resurrecting the name Physiculus palmatus Klunzinger, 1872, for the Australian Red Cod. Memoirs of Museum Victoria 80: 103–143. The commercially fished Red Cod Pseudophycis bachus Forster in Bloch and Schneider, 1801, is shown on the basis of both morphological and genetic evidence to be confined to New Zealand waters. The separation of the closely related but distinct Australian cognate brings the number of species in the Australasian genus Pseudophycis to four. The name Physiculus palmatus Klunzinger, 1872, which was long thought to be a junior synonym of Pseudophycis barbata Günther, 1862, is demonstrated to have been originally proposed for the Australian endemic. Pseudophycis palmata (new combination) differs from P. bachus in having a prominent black blotch or spot basally on the pectoral fin that does not extend dorsally onto the body, in contrast to distinctly extending onto body, the second dorsal fin with 47–56 rather than 40–45 rays, the anal fin with 50–57 rather than 42–48 rays and the vertebral column with 47–50 rather than 44–46 total vertebrae. Diagnoses, colour descriptions, images and distributions for all four species and a key to members of the genus are provided.