Check List 21(3): 534-538, doi: 10.15560/21.3.534

First record of Platax teira (Forsskål, 1775), Longfin Batfish (Acanthuriformes, Ephippidae), in Cabo Pulmo National Park, Mexico

David Petatán-Ramírez^‡, Patrick Webster^§, Lauren Boye^§, Leonardo Vázquez-Vera^|, Héctor Reyes-Bonilla^¶

‡ Instituto Politécnico Nacional-Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas, La Paz, Mexico§ Unaffiliated, Monterey, United States of America| Unaffiliated, La Paz, Mexico¶ Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur, La Paz, Mexico

Corresponding author: David Petatán-Ramírez ( dpetatan@ipn.mx )

Academic editor: Hudson Tercio Pinheiro

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Citation: Petatán-Ramírez D, Webster P, Boye L, Vázquez-Vera L, Reyes-Bonilla H (2025) First record of Platax teira (Forsskål, 1775), Longfin Batfish (Acanthuriformes, Ephippidae), in Cabo Pulmo National Park, Mexico. Check List 21(3): 534-538. https://doi.org/10.15560/21.3.534

Abstract

Platax teira (Forsskål, 1775) is distributed from the west coast of Africa and the Red Sea to the central Pacific Ocean. Here, we report the observation of an adult specimen at Cabo Pulmo National Park, Mexico, made during a recreational dive on 11 December 2023. This record represents an addition of a new genus to the reef-fish fauna of the Tropical Eastern Pacific. The possible means of arrival of the fish (natural dispersal with floating materials or a human-mediated introduction) is discussed.

Keywords

Alien species, citizen science, marine protected areas, range expansion