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Pseudomugil majusculus
Pseudomugil majusculus

Pseudomugil majusculus

Ivantsoff and Allen, 1984

Cape Blue Eye

Species Summary

Pseudomugil majusculus have a moderately compressed and elongated body that usually doesn’t exceed 5 cm. The body colour is mainly pale yellow with fine, dark scale outlines. There is a horizontal row of about 10 vertically elongated, white spots along the middle of the side. The lower edge of the breast is yellow and there are white margins on the anal and second dorsal fins. Mature males have a slightly larger first dorsal fin than females (sometimes with a short filamentous extension). Pseudomugil majusculus is similar in appearance to P. signifer.

Pseudomugil majusculus can be distinguished from P. inconspicuus, P. novaeguineae and P. paludicola by a low predorsal scale count and the more anterior position of the origin of the first dorsal fin; from P. gertrudae, by the coloration of the latter and the anal fin ray count; from P. tenellus, by the gill raker, anal fin ray and transverse scale row counts; and from P. signifer, by the gill raker count and the gill raker length.

Etymology

The species name is Latin for somewhat larger or greater, implying how this species grows larger than its congeners.

Etymology compiled from C. Scharpf (2024), “Fishes of Sahul: an Etymological Survey (Part 7), Pseudomugilidae and Telmatherinidae”, Fishes of Sahul 38(2): 2176–2189, and etyfish.org.

Distribution & Habitat

Pseudomugil majusculus were initially collected in 1979 by Bruce Collette, an American ichthyologist, from brackish water on the northern coast of New Guinea, near Cape Ward Hunt, approximately 190 kilometres northeast of Port Moresby. They have also been collected from a freshwater stream on Tagula (Sudest) Island, in the Louisiade Archipelago. Tagula Island is about 280 kilometres southeast of Papua New Guinea. It is the largest island of the archipelago with an area of 800 km2. They are probably euryhaline and inhabit a wide range of natural habitats including mangrove swamps, marine estuaries and freshwater streams.

Remarks

Live specimens were collected in June 1993 from Tagula Island, but they are currently rare (or non-existent) in the aquarium hobby. They were named “majusculus” (Latin), meaning somewhat larger or greater, thus implying that this species grows to a larger size than other species of Pseudomugil.

References