Stolephorus acinaces, a new anchovy from northern Borneo, and redescription of Stolephorus andhraensis Babu Rao, 1966 (Clupeiformes: Engraulidae)

Abstract

Stolephorus acinaces sp. nov. is described from 14 specimens from the northern coast of Borneo, Malaysia. The new species is closely related to Stolephorus andhraensis Babu Rao, 1966, which is redescribed, both species having a long upper jaw with the posterior tip beyond the posterior margin of the preopercle, no predorsal scutes, the posterior preopercular margin indented and concave, the posterior tip of the depressed pelvic fin not reaching to a vertical through the dorsal-fin origin, no dark lines on the dorsum, and no black spots below the eye. However, the former is distinguished from S. andhraensis in having higher gill raker counts on the first and second gill arches (

Description of three new species previously identified as Stolephorus bengalensis (Dutt & Babu Rao, 1959) or Stolephorus insularis Hardenberg, 1933 and a re-description of S. bengalensis (Chordata, Osteichthyes, Clupeiformes, Engraulidae)

“…The mitochondrial genotypes of 31 specimens comprising three (out of four) species of Stolephorus examined in this study, plus one closely related, but unidentified species, were compared using the complete (1140 base pairs [bp]) cytochrome b gene and partial (648 bp) COI gene. The cytochrome b gene sequences were published in Hata et al (2019;2020b) and are available in GenBank (Table 1). The COI gene was newly sequenced for 19 specimens of S. eldorado, including the holotype and several paratypes (Table 1) and the resulting data combined with COI sequences (available in GenBank) of S. diablocus (two specimens from West Peninsular Malaysia, including the holotype), S. bengalensis (eight specimens from India), S. eldorado (one specimen from China; Pang et al 2019) and a single specimen of an unidentified Stolephorus species (from Segara Anakan Lagoon, Central Java) (Table 1).…”

“…However, the former four species are distinguished from the other seven by having a predorsal scute (vs. absent in the latter) and double dark lines on the dorsum posterior to the dorsal fin (vs. no lines on the dorsum, except in S. hindustanensis and S. ronquilloi). Moreover, S. carpentariae also differs from S. bengalensis and the three new species in having 19 or 20 branched anal-fin rays [16-18 (rarely 19 or 20) in the remaining five species] and the anal-fin origin located below the origin of the second to sixth dorsal- fin ray (vs. eighth to eleventh) (Whitehead et al 1988;Wongratana et al 1999;Gangan et al 2020;Hata et al 2020b). (Bleeker, 1852) in having a predorsal scute and double pigment lines on the dorsum behind the dorsal fin, but differ in having deciduous body scales (vs. body scales not deciduous) and lacking a spine on the pelvic scute (pelvic scute with a hard posteriorly projecting spine) (Whitehead et al 1988;Wongratana et al 1999;Hata et al 2019).…”

A New Stolephorus (Teleostei: Clupeiformes: Engraulidae: Engraulinae) from the Red Sea

“…STOLEPHORUS , an Indo-Pacific genus of marine and/or brackish water anchovies (Clupeiformes: Engraulidae), comprises 43 valid species (Whitehead et al, 1988; Wongratana et al, 1999; Kimura et al, 2009; Hata and Motomura, 2018a, 2018b, 2018c, 2018d, 2021a, 2021b, 2021c, 2022a, 2022b; Hata et al, 2019, 2020a, 2020b, 2021, 2022a, 2022b; Gangan et al, 2020). Among them, specimens with a short maxilla just reaching posteriorly to the anterior margin of the preopercle, the pelvic-fin tip not reaching to vertical through the dorsal-fin origin, and six or fewer prepelvic scutes had been regarded as a single, widely distributed, Indo-Pacific species, Stolephorus indicus (e.g., Whitehead et al, 1988; Wongratana et al, 1999).…”