Grammatonotus bianchi, a new species of splendid perch (Percoidei: Callanthiidae) from Myanmar, northeastern Indian Ocean

A new splendid perch, Grammatonotus bianchi sp. nov. is described on the basis of two specimens (45.9–68.7 mm SL) collected at 184 m depth in the Andaman Sea off the coast of Myanmar during bottom surveys conducted by the R/V Dr Fridtjof Nansen in 2018. The new species can be distinguished from all congeners by its large head (37.7–38.6% SL), large orbit (14.4–15.3% SL), caudal-fin shape, and fresh coloration. A key to Indian Ocean species of Grammatonotus is provided.

Re-description of the loach species Leptobotia citrauratea (Teleostei, Botiidae), with the description of L. brachycephala from southern Zhejiang Province, China

Leptobotia citrauratea (Nichols, 1925), a loach species, originally described from Dongting Lake, was recently rehabilitated, based on the examination of the holotype and non-topotypical specimens. Several field surveys conducted from 2016 to 2019 in Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Hunan Provinces, P.R. China, yielded many specimens of Leptobotia which were initially identified as L. citrauratea. Molecular and morphological analyses of these specimens demonstrated that two distinct species are involved. One was identified as L. citrauratea, represented by specimens from both the Poyang and Dongting Lake (type locality) systems in Jiangxi and Hunan Provinces, and the other species is described as L. brachycephala, represented by specimens from the Ou-Jiang and Qu-Jiang, two coastal rivers of Zhejiang Province, China. Leptobotia brachycephala resembles L. citrauratea and L. micra in having a row of orange dots or an orange stripe along the dorsal mid-line of the body, extending from the nape to the caudal-fin base – a unique character in Leptobotia. Leptobotia brachycephala differs from L. citrauratea and L. micra Bohlen & Šlechtová, 2017, in caudal-fin shape and pelvic-fin insertion and proportional measurements including caudal-fin length, head length, predorsal length and anal-fin length. Its species status was further corroborated by position in a molecular phylogenetic analysis, based on the mitochondrial cyt b gene and its minimum uncorrected p-distance (2.9%) from congeneric species.

A Preliminary Investigation of Caudal Fin Shape Effects on Thrust and Power of a Newly Designed Robotic Tuna

Thunniform swimmers are known to travel at high speeds for long periods of time and at high hydrodynamic efficiency. Thus, there is a great deal of interest in their swimming physics. In order to better understand these physics, a newly designed robotic tuna was constructed that allows for interchangeable caudal fins. This robot was put in a water tunnel and tested at tail beat frequencies ranging from 0.5 to 1.0 Hz and at freestreams of 0, 0.2, and 0.4 m/s. A lever assembly was used to transmit thrust force to a load cell, and power was calculated using data from current sensors. Preliminary results suggest that swept caudal fins produce more thrust and are more efficient than trapezoidal fins at higher freestreams while the opposite is true at lower freestreams. However, several induction factors need to be resolved before more confident assertions can be made.

Effects of Tail Geometries on the Performance and Wake Pattern in Flapping Propulsion

Swimming fishes exhibit remarkable diversities of the caudal fin geometries. In this work, a computational study is conducted to investigate the effects of the caudal fin shape on the hydrodynamic performance and wake patterns in flapping propulsion. We construct the propulsor models in different shapes by digitizing the real caudal fins of fish across a wide range of species spanning homocercal tails with low aspect ratio (square shape used by bluegill sunfish, rainbow trout, etc.) or high aspect ratio (lunate shape adopted by tuna, swordfish, etc.), and even heterocercal caudal fin adopted by sharks. Those fin models perform the same flapping motion in a uniform flow to mimic fish’s forward swimming. We then simulate the flow around the flapping fins by an in-house immersed-boundary-method based flow solver. According to the analysis of the hydrodynamic performance, we have found that the lunate shape model (high aspect-ratio) always generates a larger thrust compared to other models. The comparison of the propulsive efficiency shows that the large aspect ratio fins (tuna and shark) have a higher efficiency when the Strouhal number (St) is in the range of steady swimming (0.2<St<0.4), while the lower aspect ratio caudal fins (catfish, trout, etc.) are more efficient when St>0.4, in which the fish is accelerating or maneuvering. Finally, the 3D wake patterns of those propulsors are analyzed in detail.