There has been exciting developments in the world of pygmy seahorses of late with the scientific description and naming of three new species. I have seen two of these at Wakatobi and whilst a few debates at the time as to whether they are distinct species occured they have been confirmed as Hippocampus pontohi and H. severnsi. H. pontohi can be distinguished primarily by colour from H. severnsi and from H. colemani, which is another white pygmy seahorse, by the number of rings on the tail and geographic location, the latter occurring at Lord Howe Island and possibly in PNG.
The third pygmy to be described is H. satomiae, which I have unfortunately never seen so I don't have any images, is a uniformly pale beige species with a red tuft on the head and small red tufts on the back, I hope to see it one day!
If these 3 new species aren't enough the descriptions of two new species will be published in the coming weeks! Including H. bargibanti and H. denise the number of true pygmy seahorses will rise to 7!
