NOTES ICHTYOLOGIQUES FIRST WESTERN ATLANTIC RECORD OF well-known, and to record their presence off the ZEUGOPTERUS PUNCTATUS (PLEURO- North American seashore. NECTIFORMES: SCOPHTHALMIDAE) FROM OFF THE NEWFOUNDLAND Material and methods COAST (CANADA). Bruno CHANET, c/o The comparative material is deposited in Christian DENIEL, Institut Universitaire Européen the collections of the Laboratoire d’Ichtyologie, de la Mer, place Nicolas Copernic, Technopôle, MNHN, Paris (France) and in the National Mu- Brest-Iroise, 29280 Plouzané [Bruno.Chanet seum of Natural History (USNM), Washington, @wanadoo.fr] & Martine DESOUTTER, D.C. (USA). Morphological and meristic charac- Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Labora- ters have been compared to those in Norman toire d’Ichtyologie générale et appliquée, 43 rue (1934) and Nielsen (1986) and osteological fea- Cuvier, 75231 Paris cedex 05, FRANCE tures have been compiled from dissections and [[email protected]]. radiographs. The comparative specimens studied by us and reported in the literature came from the RÉSUMÉ.!-!Premier signalement de Zeugopterus French, British, Swedish and Norwegian coasts. punctatus (Pleuronectiformes: Scophthalmidae) dans l’Atlantique ouest, sur les côtes de Terre- Specimens examined Neuve (Canada). Zeugopterus punctatus.!-!12 specimens, Le targeur, Zeugopterus punctatus, est un 61.3-170!mm SL; MNHN 1997-4015, 1 spm poisson plat bien connu sur les côtes européennes. (dissected), 170!mm SL, Bay of Morlaix, Pour la première fois, deux spécimens (MNHN 48°15’N-3°96’W, France, 5!m; MNHN 1997- 1999-0251, 122-130!mm LS) sont mentionnés sur 4016, 1 spm, 128!mm SL, Bay of Morlaix, la côte ouest de l’Atlantique, près de Terre-Neuve 48°21’N-3°94’W, France, 5!m; MNHN 1998- (Canada). 0393, 2 spms (dry skeletons), 66-106!mm SL, Sound of Brest, 48°21’N-4°36’W, France, 4!m; Key-words.!-!Scophthalmidae -!Zeugopterus punc- MNHN 1995-0071, 1 spm, 157!mm SL, Chausey tatus -!ANW -!Canada -!Newfoundland -!First Islands, 48°51’N-1°53’W, France, 1!m; MNHN record. 1974-0274, 1 spm, 61.3!mm SL, Roscoff, 48°43’N-3°59’W, France; MNHN 1996-0940, 1 spm, 158!mm SL, Houat Island, 47°24’N-2°57’W, For the first time, two common topknots, France, 5!m; MNHN-1292, 2 spms, 122.5- Zeugopterus punctatus (Bloch, 1787), are men- 153.7!mm SL, Bohusland, Sweden; MNHN 1999- tioned off Newfoundland. These specimens, 0251, 2 spms, 122-130!mm SL, Newfoundland, labelled «!Terre Neuve, M.N. Guillot!» (M.N. Canada; USNM 017361, 1 spm, 152!mm SL, off Guillot was a French collector of the Muséum Bergen, Norway. national d’Histoire naturelle in the nineteenth century), were found in the backlogged collections Results and discussion of the Laboratoire d’Ichtyologie, MNHN, Paris Zeugopterus punctatus is one of seven (France). Unfortunately, the capture location of scophthalmid species present in the eastern part of these two topknots has never been indicated the North Atlantic Ocean (Nielsen, 1986). Only precisely and cannot be further specified. As there one species, Scophthalmus aquosus (Mitchill, is no such named as “Terre Neuve” on the Euro- 1815), is well known in western North Atlantic pean seashore and “Terre Neuve” is the French (Norman, 1934). Z. punctatus is a common spe- name for Newfoundland, the simplest solution is cies along the European seashore. This species to consider that these specimens are genuine was previously reported only along the coasts of Newfoundlanders. Moreover, as typical Western western Europe, from Trondhjem Fjord (Norway) Atlantic fishes present in the same lot were col- to the Bay of Biscay (Norman, 1934; Nielsen, lected by M.N. Guillot in the same area, we can 1986). Buen (1926) and Chabanaud (1931) simply reject the hypothesis of a mislabelling. mentioned the presence of this species on the The purpose of this note is to compare Mediterranean coast of Spain as well. these West Atlantic specimens to those from the The topknot is a small left-eyed flatfish. European coast specimens, where this species is As Norman (1934) indicated, this species can be Cybium 2000, 24(2): 203-204. 204 CHANET & DESOUTTER Table!I.!-!Comparative meristic and morphometric data on Zeugopterus punctatus. easily identified by the four following features: a REFERENCES very inclined mouth; the posterior rounded exten- sion of each median fin on the caudal peduncle; BUEN DE F., 1926.!-!Catalogo ictiologico del darker spots and blotches on the eyed-side; pres- Mediterraneo Español y de Marruecos, ence of strong vertically directed ctenii on the recopilando lo publicado sobre peces de las eyed-side scales. Meristic data gathered on twelve costas mediterraneas y proximas del Atlantico specimens, ten European and the two from New- (Mar de España). Result. Camp. Int. Inst. Esp. foundland, as well as in the literature, are pre- Oceanogr., 2: 1-121. sented in table!I. CHABANAUD P., 1931.!-!Les poissons Pleu- The two Newfoundland specimens do not ronectes de la Méditerranée (Pisces Hetero- differ from the European specimens in any of the somata). Mém. Ass. nat. Nice, Alpes- morphological, meristic and osteological features Maritimes, Suppl. au “Riviera scientifique”, examined. Unfortunately, as the Newfoundland 2: 1-40. common topknots have been preserved in alcohol NIELSEN J., 1986.!-!Scopthalmidae. In: Fishes of and, thus, are faded, it is impossible to document the North-Eastern Atlantic and Mediterra- the presence of the very characteristic coloration nean, Vol. 3 (Whitehead P.J.P., Tortonese E., pattern of the common topknot i.e., the darker Bauchot M.-L., Hureau J.-C. & J. Nielsen, spots and blotches on the eyed-side. eds), pp.!1287-1293. Paris: UNESCO. These specimens represent the first re- NORMAN J.R., 1934.!-!A Systematic Monograph cord of Zeugopterus punctatus on the east coast of of the Flatfishes (Heterosomata). Vol. 1: Pset- North America, Newfoundland (Canada), extend- todidae, Bothidae, Pleuronectidae. 459!p. ing over 4,000!km to the west the geographical London: British Museum (Natural History). distribution of this species. Nevertheless, as this species had never been reported before in this area, we may think that Z. punctatus was present off Newfoundland during the nineteenth century. Acknowledgements.!-!We would like to thank the people who helped us in sampling specimens and provided technical support: D. Baron (Brest, France), M. Champion (Plouzané, France), M.-L. Bauchot, N. Bailly, P. Pruvost (MNHN, Paris, France), A.-C. Guibord, F. Chapleau (University of Ottawa, Canada). We are indebted to the two anonymous reviewers who greatly improved the Reçu le 03.05.1999. quality of this work. Accepté pour publication 26.01.2000.