Review of the image plates shows that an image of Rypticus subbifrenatus was incorrectly identified as that of its similarly colored congener R. carpenter. Hence the latter was deleted from the St. John-Thomas inventory. In addition, an image of the blenniid fish Hypsoblennius exstochilus was obtained from St. Thomas, and it is now added to that inventory. These two changes did not substantially affect data on the ecological structure of the St. John-Thomas fauna.

Biodiversity, Caribbean, identification, reef fishes

Prompt publication of corrections to faunal inventories helps ensure the accuracy of biogeographical data. Here we correct the erroneous occurrence of a misidentified serranid fish in the St. John-Thomas inventory. In addition, a newly available photograph of a blenniid taken at St. Thomas provides a voucher for its addition to that inventory.

Figure 1. 

Hypsoblennius exstochilus. Photo: Natasha Bestrom (natasha.bestrom@uvi.edu) St Thomas, US Virgin Islands.

Supplementary Plate S17: The label embedded in the image that reads “Rypticus carpenteri” is incorrect and should read “Rypticus subbifrenatus”. The distributions of large dark spots on the interorbital areas and the colors of the fins of those two species differ (Baldwin and Weigt, 2012) and the color pattern of the fish in Plate S17 is that of R. subbifrenatus. As that image represents the sole-source voucher of the occurrence of R. carpenteri it is removed from the St. John-Thomas inventory.

Fig. 1 here is an image of a Longhorn Blenny, Hypsoblennius exstochilus Bohlke, 1959, taken at Botany Bay (18.3585, -65.0335) at St. Thomas. That species is easily recognized by its diagnostic pair of orbital cirri, each of which consists of a very large, branched stalk, and the color pattern of its head. This image represents the sole-source record for the addition of this species to the St. John-Thomas faunal inventory.

The combination of the removal of R. carpenteri from and addition of H. exstochilus to the St. John-Thomas inventory had very little effect on data in Tables 3-6: In Table 3 the only change is the addition of one to the number of uncommon shallow species. The only changes in Table 5 are small increases (< 0.5%) in the percentages of Core Coral Reef Fishes. There are no changes to Tables 4, 6.