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Morphological Characteristics of Squaretail Mullet Ellochelon vaigiensis (Quoy and Gaimard 1825), a Rare Mugil Species Collected from the Iranian Waters of the Persian Gulf (Teleostei: Mugiliformes)

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Azad Teimori at Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman
Azad Teimori
Majid Askari Hesni at Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman
Majid Askari Hesni
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Detailed morphological information is provided for the Squaretail Mullet Ellochelon vaigiensis (Quoy and Gaimard 1825) from the Iranian waters of the Persian Gulf. The general morphology, saccular otolith, the urohyal bone morphology, and the scale morphology were described for this species. Approximately 21 years ago, the occurrence of E. vaigiensis was reported from the coastal waters of the Hormuzgan Province in the Persian Gulf (Southern Iran), based on only a single specimen, and since that only a few studies have addressed its occurrence from this region. Re-detection of E. vaigiensis in this study provided detailed data on its morphological characteristics from this region.
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Morphological Characteristics of Squaretail Mullet Ellochelon
vaigiensis (Quoy and Gaimard 1825), a Rare Mugil Species Collected
from the Iranian Waters of the Persian Gulf (Teleostei: Mugiliformes)
Azad Teimori
1
&Majid Askari Hesni
1
Received: 30 December 2019 /Revised: 3 May 2020 /
#Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract
Detailed morphological information is provided for the Squaretail Mullet Ellochelon vaigiensis (Quoy and Gaimard 1825)from
the Iranian waters of the Persian Gulf. The general morphology, saccular otolith, the urohyal bone morphology, and the scale
morphology were described for this species. Approximately 21 years ago, the occurrence of E. vaigiensis was reported from the
coastal waters of the Hormuzgan Province in the Persian Gulf (Southern Iran), based on only a single specimen, and since that
only a few studies have addressed its occurrence from this region. Re-detection of E. vaigiensis in this study provided detailed
data on its morphological characteristics from this region.
Keywords Morphology .Taxonomy .Biodiversity .Marine fish
Introduction
Species identification and the study of their distribution is an
important issue in conservation planning and management. It
is particularly important in the case where there is only a little
information available on the distribution and classification of
a certain taxon. The family Mugilidae comprises fishes that
are not easy to identify and to discriminate by considering
only their general morphological features. For example, there
is a close overlap in the numbers of dorsal and anal fin spines
and ray counts within the family (Whitfield et al. 2012).
Nevertheless, discrimination of the species in mullets fish is
very important for the local fisheries management as well as
trophic studies (Bustos et al. 2012).
Until date, six mullet species have been recorded from the
Iranian waters, comprising two exotic species from the
Caspian Sea basin (Chelon auratus and C. saliens), two native
species from the freshwater systems of Southern Iran (Mugil
cephalus and Planiliza abu), and two species from brackish or
marine waters (Ellochelon vaigiensis and C. subviridis)
(Abdoli 2000; Abdoli and Naderi 2009).
Different aspects of mullet fishes have been exten-
sively studied within the Iranian water basins except
for E. vaigiensis, which has been only poorly investi-
gated (Ardalan et al. 2012; Askary Sary et al. 2012;
Behrooz et al. 2014;Coad2017; Salehi Ranjbar et al.
2016). Originally, E. vaigiensis is described from
Waigeo, Indonesia (Quoy and Gaimard 1824–1825). It
was previously in the genus Liza but later was placed in
Ellochelon (Randall 1995). Ellochelon vaigiensis is dis-
tributed widely from the Indo-Pacific region, including
the Red Sea and East Africa to the Tuamoto Islands,
north to southern Japan, south to southern Great
Barrier Reef, and New Caledonia (Harrison and Senou
1999). However, only a few studies have addressed the
occurrence of this species from the Iranian waters of the
Persian Gulf (Akbari 1998; Hashemi et al. 2014;
Esmaeili et al. 2015; Salehi Ranjbar et al. 2016).
In his study, Akbari (1998) identified and reported
E. vaigiensis from the coastal and estuarine waters in the
Hormuzgan Province, Southern Iran (Persian Gulf) based on
only a single specimen, and since that only few studies report-
ed this species from this region (Esmaeili et al. 2015; Hashemi
et al. 2015;Owfi2015).
During our recent fish sampling from coastal waters
in Hormuzgan, Persian Gulf, we collected some speci-
mens of mugilids and were able to identify six individ-
uals of E. vaigiensis. This study confirms the occur-
rence of E. vaigiensis from coastal and estuarine waters
*Azad Teimori
a.teimori@uk.ac.ir
1
Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Shahid Bahonar
University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran
https://doi.org/10.1007/s41208-020-00217-9
Published online: 27 May 2020
Thalassas: An International Journal of Marine Sciences (2020) 36:405–413
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... All other parts of the body have a similar colouration to specimens from Biak and type locality (Figure 5). The taxonomy of E. vaigiensis is ancient and was originally described from the type locality in Waigeo Island [11]. The type specimens were caught during the Voyage Autour du Monde of the French corvette of l'Uranie and La Physicienne [28]. ...
Taxonomic Note on Ellochelon vaigiensis (Quoy & Gaimard, 1825) (Mugilidae: Mugiliformes) from West New Guinea, Indonesia
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Ellochelon vaigiensis is a monotypic, catadromous, and widespread species throughout Indo-Pacific region. Taxonomy of the species is ancient and somewhat confused by morphological resemblance. Here, we present and compare the morphological characteristics of E. vaigiensis from 3 distinct areas, respectively from the type locality (Waigeo Island, Raja Ampat), from Cendrawasih Bay (Biak Island), and Kaimana (Venu and Aiduma Islands). All the samples belong to E. vaigiensis following the species diagnosis given by Harrison and Senou (1999). No significant differentiation is found for all meristic and morphological characters between specimens caught from the type locality and Biak Island. Nevertheless, specimens from Kaimana have a slender body width compared to specimens from Waigeo Island (type locality) and Biak Island. Specimens from Kaimana also display a longer head and a larger eye diameter than specimens from Biak Island. A canonical discriminant analysis made on all morphometric data confirms the morphological differentiation of Kaimana's specimens compared to the type locality and Biak Island. These results suggest the possibility of the presence of cryptic species in E. vaigiensis and emphasize the necessity to conduct molecular taxonomy to definitely solve the taxonomic status of Kaimana specimens.
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... All other parts of the body have a similar colouration to specimens from Biak and type locality (Figure 5). The taxonomy of E. vaigiensis is ancient and was originally described from the type locality in Waigeo Island [11]. The type specimens were caught during the Voyage Autour du Monde of the French corvette of l'Uranie and La Physicienne [28]. ...
Taxonomic Note on Ellochelon vaigiensis (Quoy & Gaimard, 1825) (Mugilidae: Mugiliformes) from West New Guinea, Indonesia
Article
Full-text available
  • Aug 2022
Ellochelon vaigiensis is a monotypic, catadromous, and widespread species throughout Indo-Pacific region. Taxonomy of the species is ancient and somewhat confused by morphological resemblance. Here, we present and compare the morphological characteristics of E. vaigiensis from 3 distinct areas, respectively from the type locality (Waigeo Island, Raja Ampat), from Cendrawasih Bay (Biak Island), and Kaimana (Venu and Aiduma Islands). All the samples belong to E. vaigiensis following the species diagnosis given by Harrison and Senou (1999). No significant differentiation is found for all meristic and morphological characters between specimens caught from the type locality and Biak Island. Nevertheless, specimens from Kaimana have a slender body width compared to specimens from Waigeo Island (type locality) and Biak Island. Specimens from Kaimana also display a longer head and a larger eye diameter than specimens from Biak Island. A canonical discriminant analysis made on all morphometric data confirms the morphological differentiation of Kaimana‘s specimens compared to the type locality and Biak Island. These results suggest the possibility of the presence of cryptic species in E. vaigiensis and emphasize the necessity to conduct molecular taxonomy to definitely solve the taxonomic status of Kaimana specimens. HIGHLIGHTS The present study provided a detailed morphological study of E. vaigiensis based on specimens collected at the type of locality of Waigeo and samples caught from localities in the western part of New Guinea No significant differentiation is found for all meristic and morphological characters between specimens caught from the type locality and Biak Island. Nevertheless, specimens from Kaimana have a slender body width at origin of first dorsal fin compared to specimens from type locality and Biak Island. Specimens from Kaimana also display a longer head and a larger eye diameter than specimens from Biak Island A canonical discriminant analysis confirms the morphological differentiation of Kaimana‘s specimens suggesting the possibility of the presence of cryptic species in E. vaigiensis and emphasize the necessity to conduct molecular taxonomy GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
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