NEW RECORD OF THE RED SCORPIONFISH, SCORPAENA SCROFA (ACTINOPTERYGII: SCORPAENIFORMES: SCORPAENIDAE) FROM DEEP WATERS OFF ISRAEL, GULF OF AQABA, RED SEA

This study examines the distribution of the red scorpionfish, Scorpaena scrofa Linnaeus, 1758, in the Red Sea, in order to get a better picture of the distribution and dispersal of this species. The species is recorded for the first time from the Gulf of Aqaba, based on a specimen collected off Eilat, Israel at a depth of 400 m. This finding also confirms the occurrence of the species in the Red Sea and links up with a recent record from Saya de Malha Bank, western Indian Ocean.


INTRODUCTION
The scorpionfishes of the genus Scorpaena Linnaeus, 1758 are mostly distributed in warm temperate seas, occasionally also in tropical seas, around the world. They inhabit benthic habitats, mostly dwelling on rocky reefs. The genus includes a total of 61 valid species . It is characterized within the family Scorpaenidae by the dorsal-fin rays normally XII,[9][10]8 or 10 normal for some species), analfin rays normally III, 5; pectoral-fin rays 16-21, some rays branched, the branching usually compound in larger specimens; swimbladder absent; vertebrae 24; scales on body cycloid or ctenoid; occipital pit usually present, never flat or convex; palatine teeth present; ventral margin of lacrimal bone usually with numerous spines; posterior lacrimal spine absent, if present not hooked forward; no slit behind fourth gill arch; scales on pectoral-fin base reduced or absent; lateral line normal, continuing onto or near base of caudal fin; lateral-line scales forming relatively complete tubes; peritoneum pale (Eschmeyer 1969, Poss 1999modified).
The genus Scorpaena has been known since ancient times (i.e., Aristotle, 4th century BC; see Artedi 1738); in modern ichthyology, it was first described by Linnaeus (1758: 266) with Scorpaena porcus Linnaeus, 1758 and Scorpaena scrofa Linnaeus, 1758 as the only known species at the time. The genus Scorpaena has been placed on the Official List of Generic Names in Zoology in Opinion 77 (Anonymous 1922). The species description of S. scrofa by Linnaeus (1758) was based on multiple sources from localities in the Mediterranean Sea (see Artedi 1738, "Scorpaena tota rubens, cirris plurimis ad os"; Gronovius 1754, "Scorpaena capite cavernoso, cirris geminis in maxilla inferiore"). The species was revised by Eschmeyer (1969) as part of a review of Atlantic species of the family, based on specimens from the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern Atlantic.
When examining specimens of Scorpaena from the Gulf of Aqaba, our attention was drawn to the identity of a specimen collected from deep water which was identified as S. scrofa, and proved to represent a new record of this species from the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea. This new record is reported and discussed in the present paper. DOI: 10.3750/AIEP/02861

MATERIALS AND METHODS
On 28 April 1993, a 149.3 mm SL specimen of S. scrofa was collected with a trammel net by A. Baranes at Eilat, Israel, Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea, at 400 m depth of water. The specimen was deposited in the Hebrew University Fish Collection with the catalog number HUJ 17439. Abbreviations of fish collections follow . Counts and measurements follow Hubbs and Lagler (1947); the classification follows , the head spine terminology follows Eschmeyer (1969), fin-ray counts follow Fricke (1983), and references are provided according to Fricke (2020

RESULTS
Family SCORPAENIDAE Risso, 1827 Genus Scorpaena Linnaeus, 1758 Scorpaena scrofa Linnaeus, 1758 (Fig. 1, Table 1) Description. Dorsal-fin spines XII, dorsal-fin soft rays 9, anal-fin spines III, anal-fin soft rays 5, pectoral-fin rays 19, with 2nd to 6th rays branched. Gill rakers 5 + 10 (total 15). Lateral-line scales 24. Preorbital with 3 spinous points over maxillary; suborbital ridge with 3 spinous points; upper posttemporal spine present; second preopercular spine normal. Scales on sides of body ctenoid; vertical scale rows 42. Most of head, pectoral-fin base and chest naked. Occipital pit moderate. Interorbital area with 2 ridges which end at the bases of the tympanic spines. Pores at symphysis of lower jaw small and separate. Three tentacles present on lower jaw, large skin flap associated with posterior preorbital spine, and flaps on fourth and fifth preopercular spines. Additional morphometric characters are presented in Table 1. Color of preserved specimen. Head and body pale yellowish (Fig. 1), head with scattered dark brown spots, eyes dark grey, back with traces of grey blotches, lower half of caudal peduncle with a large grey blotch. Fins yellowish, base of dorsal fin with a few dark brown spots, upper half of pectoral fin spotted with brown, caudal fin distally grey.
Several records in online databases seem to record S. scrofa from the Red Sea. The map in FishBase (Froese and Pauly 2019) shows a distribution of the species in Egypt, Israel, and Yemen. A close examination of the records, however, shows that the records from Egypt and Israel were based on Mediterranean literature (Whitehead * Frøiland Ø. 1972. The scorpaenids of the Red Sea (Pisces: Scorpaenidae), a taxonomical and zoogeographical study. PhD thesis, University of Bergen, Norway. et al. 1986) and specimens, while the record from Yemen was based on a record from the Gulf of Aden, probably a misidentification of Scorpaena nasicornua Fricke et Zhukov, 2020. A search in another database, GBIF (Anonymous 2020), results in 9 records of S. scrofa from the Red Sea, two from the Gulf of Aqaba, and seven from the Egyptian coast of the Red Sea. Checking the sources, we found that all those records were based on "human observation" without any further specification. This seems impossible as Red Sea populations of the species occur in deep water below diving depths. These human observations are most likely misidentifications of Scorpaenopsis barbata (Rüppell, 1838), a species that is common in shallow water in the Red Sea. We concluded that we are not aware of any reliable, published information on the occurrence of Scorpaena scrofa in the Red Sea.
During the examination of scorpaenid fishes in the HUJ collection, the authors of the present paper found a specimen from Eilat, Israel collected in 1993 which they identified as S. scrofa. The Red Sea record of that species can therefore now be confirmed; this also confirms the records from Israel and the Gulf of Aqaba.
The new distribution record of S. scrofa suggests a circum-African distribution, with a big gap in the eastern Atlantic between Guinea and Namibia (Fig. 2). In most of that region, the species is apparently replaced by Scorpaena stephanica Cadenat, 1943(see Poss 2016, a large scorpaenid species that is occurring in habitats similar to those of S. scrofa. As S. scrofa was also recorded in some other areas of the western Indian Ocean, it is unlikely that the species migrated to the northern Red Sea (Gulf of Aqaba) via the Suez Canal, in contrast to some other species (e.g., Muraena helena Linnaeus, 1758).
The presently reported specimen of S. scrofa was collected with a trammel net off Eilat, at a depth of 400 m. That depth record is not unusual for the species, which was previously reported from shallow water to 500 m depth, though in most regions it is most common at depths of 0-150 m (Poss 2016). The preferred depth may be related to the water temperature; possibly, the species prefers deeper water where the maximum temperature in shallow water is too high. The hydrographic conditions in the Gulf of Aqaba are characterized by elevated temperatures of 20.5-27.6°C and increased salinities of 40.3‰-41.6‰ throughout the water column, which is similar to the conditions found in the main Red Sea basin (Reiss and Hottinger 1984). Temperatures in the northern Gulf of Aqaba at 400 m depth vary between 20.5°C and 22°C, while in the summer months they may raise to 27°C in shallow waters (Gertman and Brenner 2004). These high shallow water temperatures may be the reason why S. scrofa is restricted to deep waters in the Gulf of Aqaba. The species has not yet been recorded from the coast of Jordan (Khalaf and Zajonz 2007).
The presently reported specimen measures 149.3 mm SL. This large size is not unusual for the species; the largest examined specimen has 200 mm SL (ZIN 49838), and Boutière (1958) reported a specimen of 490 mm total length (equaling approximately 395 mm SL). In the Red Sea, other suitable habitats for this species may be found throughout the area in the deeper water of 300-500 m depth, probably on hard substrate. The species is not present though in the collections of German deep-sea expeditions to the Red Sea, MESEDA I-III and MINDIK (Türkay 1996, Zajonz 2006, unpublished faunal account by Uwe Zajonz), but may be expected to be reported in future studies.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank J. Maclaine and O. Crimmen (BMNH) and J.T. Williams (USNM) for giving access to and providing information on materials in their care. The research contributions of Uwe Zajonz to this article were supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Council, grant KR 1758/1-1).