Abstract

Divergence between two eastern Pacific forms of Triphoturus, currently considered to belong to the same species was tested by DNA sequences of the cytochrome b gene (DNA obtained from larvae collected in northern Chile and from adults in the Southern California Bight) and examination of larval characters. The number of apparently fixed substitutions (12 among 31 variable sites, out of 1001 bases) was high and the pattern of mid-lateral trunk pigmentation in larvae also differed consistently between the two forms. The results support the separate species status for T. mexicanus (North America) and T. oculeus (Central-South America). © 2004 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles.