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Re-Description of Sillago malabarica, Silver Whiting from Southern Indian Waters

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Abstract

Sillaginids possess similar taxonomic characters, which make the specific identification difficult, and many true species may be hidden in the synonymy of wide-ranging species. There are currently 36 valid species of sand whitings in the family Sillaginidae. Thirteen valid species are reported from Indian waters and six species are reported from the Arabian Sea. Investigations into the sillaginid diversity off the west coast of India revealed the presence of a species from the Arabian seawhich, on examination, proved to be very similar to the types of Sciaena malabarica. Based on conventional taxonomic analysis and DNA barcoding, we therefore raise Sillago malabarica (new combination) from the synonymy of S. sihama and re-describe it here. Distinctive characteristics of the species include XI-XII spines in the first dorsal fin; I, 21–24 rays in the 2nd dorsal fin; 3–4/7–8 gill rakers on 1st gill arch, Head length 25.2–30.4; Snout length 39.4%–46.8% HL; post-orbital length 34%–37.5% HL, 34 total vertebrae (abdominal: 13, haemal: 4 and caudal: 17); single sharp spine on the opercular edge; swim-bladder with eight or nine lateral processes extending from entire lateral surface of main body of swim bladder; golden silvery body, dorsal and anal fins hyaline, with yellow tips and the absence of a mid-lateral streak or dark bands. Apart from re described species S. malabarica, original S. sihama is also recorded from Indian waters, in our studies.

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Data Availability

Specimens are available in the repositories mentioned in manuscript. The sequence datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available in the NCBI repository,an open access database data. Accession details are mentioned in the manuscript.

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Acknowledgements

The present work was carried out in the Outreach Activity on Fish Genetic Stock -Phase ii and authors acknowledges the Director, ICAR-NBFGR for all the support, guidance and infrastructure provided during the work. Hi-tech Laboratory, Kochi is acknowledged for digital x-rays of the specimens. Authors also acknowledges A Kathirvelpandian, CP Rajool Shanis and Charan Ravi for sample collection. EddaAßel, Collection Manager, Ichthyology, Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin provided photographs, radiographs and details of syntypes ZMB -576 (2).

Funding (Information that Explains whether and by Whom the Research Was Supported)

The present work was carried out in the ProjectOutreach Activity on Fish Genetic Stock -Phase II, funded by Indian Council of Agricultural Research, India.

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Author notes

  1. C. P. Rajool Shanis

    Present address: M.E.S. Ponnani College, Ponnani, Kerala, India

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Peninsular and Marine Fish Genetic Resources Centre, ICAR-National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources, Kochi, 682018, India

    P. R. Divya, Rahul G. Kumar, Linu Joy, C. P. Rajool Shanis & V. S. Basheer

  2. ICAR-National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources, Dilkusha Post, Canal Ring Road, Lucknow, 226001, India

    K. K. Lal

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  1. P. R. Divya
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Contributions

Divya PR, the corresponding author of this manuscript performed molecular and morphological analysis and prepared the manuscript. Rajool Shanis and Rahul G Kumar helped in morphological data analysis and manuscript preparation. Linu Joy helped in molecular work. Basheer VS helped in sampling and also provided support for carrying out the research and KK Lal conceived the concept and gave guidance for the work.

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Correspondence to P. R. Divya.

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Dead specimens are collected from the fish landing centres; hence ethical approval was not required.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Fig. 1

The maximum likelihood tree depicting the genetic relationship among species of the subgenus Sillago based on the analysis of COI gene sequences. The confidence values are presented on the nodes. (JPG 197 kb)

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Divya, P.R., Kumar, R.G., Joy, L. et al. Re-Description of Sillago malabarica, Silver Whiting from Southern Indian Waters. Thalassas 37, 627–640 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41208-021-00293-5

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