Cryptic speciation was recently verified in Etelis carbunculus, an important component of federally managed bottomfish fisheries in the Pacific Territories of the United States. As a result, archived otolith collections used for fishery assessment are now contaminated with newly described E. boweni in areas where these species co-occur. We compared the efficacy of otolith morphometrics and Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy to discriminate species first using voucher (i.e., known species) otoliths (n = 93) from the SW Pacific, then applied optimal models to archived otoliths (n = 91) collected around Guam. Significant and distinguishable differences in otolith morphometrics as well as FT-NIR spectral absorbance patterns were observed between E. carbunculus and E. boweni voucher samples. Classification models applied using both morphometric measurements (quadratic discriminant analysis) and FT-NIR spectral data (partial least squares discriminant analysis) were able to predict species with a high (93 – 100%) degree of accuracy despite a relatively large spatial area of specimen collection ( ± 10° latitude and longitude) and regardless of whether otoliths were whole (i.e., unbroken). Further, each method identified members of newly described E. boweni in the archived collection of E. carbunculus otoliths captured around Guam, providing strong evidence that the species’ distributions overlap in this region. The purported identification of both E. carbunculus and E. boweni in the archived catch from Guam has important implications for fisheries management; therefore, it is imperative that the corresponding otolith collections are examined to ensure that the otoliths are assigned to the correct species.

最近在Etelis carbunculus中验证了隐秘物种形成，Etelis carbunculus 是美国太平洋地区联邦政府管理的底鱼渔业的重要组成部分。结果，用于渔业评估的存档耳石收藏品现在在这些物种共存的地区受到了新描述的鲍文埃里伯氏菌的污染。 我们首先使用来自西南太平洋的凭证（即已知物种）耳石（ n = 93）比较了耳石形态测量和傅立叶变换近红外（FT-NIR）光谱法区分物种的功效，然后将最佳模型应用于存档的耳石（ n  = 91) 在关岛周围收集。在E. carbunculus和E. Boweni凭证样品之间观察到耳石形态测量以及 FT-NIR 光谱吸光度模式的显着且可区分的差异。尽管样本空间面积相对较大，但使用形态测量（二次判别分析）和 FT-NIR 光谱数据（偏最小二乘判别分析）应用的分类模型能够以高准确度 (93 – 100%) 预测物种收集（±10°纬度和经度），无论耳石是否完整（即完整）。此外，每种方法都在关岛周围捕获的E. carbunculus耳石档案中识别出新描述的E. Boweni成员，提供了强有力的证据，证明该物种的分布在该地区重叠。关岛存档渔获物中据称鉴定出的E. carbunculus和E. Boweni对渔业管理具有重要意义；因此，必须检查相应的耳石收藏，以确保将耳石分配到正确的物种。