Linuche unguiculata

Linuche unguiculata (Swartz, 1788) Distribution See Fig. 1, Mendoza-Becerril et al. (2025). Notes No voucher specimens from the Mexican Caribbean were available for direct examination in this study. However, Linuche unguiculata is included here, based on previously published records in the region from literature sources and citizen-science observations. The genus comprises the valid species L. aquila (Haeckel, 1880), L. draco (Haeckel, 1880) and L. unguiculata (Collins et al. 2025). Linuche aquila was originally described off eastern Madagascar (Haeckel 1880) and is considered to occur mainly in the Pacific and Indian Oceans (Mayer 1910). Recent observations summarised by Chuan et al. (2021) confirm the presence of L. aquila in the Indo-Pacific Region including Borneo and the Philippines. As summarised by Kramp (1961), some authors suggested that L. draco is probably a synonym of L. unguiculata; however, L. draco was recently recorded in Japanese waters (Toshino 2020) supporting its current recognition as a valid species. Based on current knowledge about the distribution of these three species, the most probable identification for specimens in the Mexican Caribbean is L. unguiculata, whose type locality is in the Jamaican part of the Caribbean Sea (Collins et al. 2025) (Fig. 2 a).