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Cibinong, Indonesia – Researchers have described a beautiful new species of shrimpgoby from the coastal waters off Banyuwangi, East Java, and given it a name that pays tribute to both its fiery colouration and its birthplace.
Published in the open-access journal ZooKeys, a team led by Kunto Wibowo of the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, part of Indonesia's National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), has formally described Tomiyamichthys oriens sp. nov., a small reef fish characterised by radiant orange blotches along its flanks and a pair of elegant filaments trailing from the first dorsal fin of males.
The two specimens on which the description is based, a male and a female each measuring roughly 35.5 mm in length, were first brought to the researchers' attention by the ornamental fish exporter CV Cahaya Baru, having been collected from sandy shallows off Banyuwangi. Both are now housed at the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense in Bogor.
The name oriens is where this discovery really shines. It is a Latin participle meaning “east” or “the rising sun”, chosen for two reasons. Firstly, it evokes the fish's own vivid orange markings, said to recall the hues of a sunrise. Secondly, it honours the species’ place of origin: Banyuwangi sits at the easternmost tip of Java and is popularly known throughout Indonesia as “The Sunrise of Java”. The authors have given the fish the English common name Oriens Shrimpgoby.
