Abstract

Snappers of the family Lutjanidae contain several of the most important reef fishery species in the tropical western Atlantic. Despite their importance, substantial geographic gaps exist for both systematic and ecological information, especially in the south Atlantic. Recent collecting efforts along the coast of Brazil have resulted in the discovery of many new reef fish species. Based on field collecting, museum specimens, and literature records, we describe a new species of snapper, Lutjanus alexandrei, apparently endemic to the Brazilian coast. Descriptions of juvenile and newly-settled life stages are also provided. Early demersal stages can commonly utilize mangroves and nearshore reefs. This species is common in many Brazilian reef systems and has typically been misidentified as the gray snapper, Lutjanus griseus, or the schoolmaster snapper, L. apodus. This pattern cast doubt on prior distributional assumptions about the southern range of these species, and subsequent field and museum work confirmed that L. griseus and L. apodus do not occur in Brazilian continental waters. A key for the identification of all western Atlantic Lutjanus species and their known distributional ranges was also developed. Twelve species of Lutjanus are now recognized in the western Atlantic, eight of which occur in Brazil (one endemic).

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