Percula at Tomini Bay, Sulawesi?

ThRoewer

New member
It seems that there are percula at Tomini Bay, Sulawesi, deep inside ocellaris territoy:
The sibling species A. ocellaris and A. percula show more or less the same colour pattern, although A. percula is described to have larger black bands in its colouration (Fautin and Allen, 1994), which could not be confirmed by our observations. There is rather a large variation: some specimens showing no black bands in their colouration while others do.
Morphologically, these two species are differentiated by the number of spines in the dorsal fin, but also this character is overlapping: A. ocellaris has 10"“11 and A. percula 9"“10 spines.
The ecological requirements of both species seem to be identical; both of them prefer the same host anemone species (Heteractis magnifica and Stichodactyla gigantea). Regarding Fautin and Allen (1994) these siblings have an allopatric distribution (Fig. 2b), but Kuiter and Tonozuka (2004) reported both species in the Tomini Bay (Sulawesi), which indicates a parapatric distribution.
Janne Timm: Molecular ecology and evolution of anemonefishes (Amphiprion spp) in the Indo-Malay Archipelago, p25

These percula seem to belong to the Biak clade which is distinct from the New Britain - Solomon Islands clade:

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