Stolephorus mercurius Hata, Lavoué & Motomura, 2021

Zainal Abidin, Danial Hariz, Lavoué, Sébastien, Mohd Abu Hassan Alshari, Norli Fauzani, Mohd. Nor, Siti Azizah, A. Rahim, Masazurah & Mohammed Akib, Noor Adelyna, 2021, Ichthyofauna of Sungai Merbok Mangrove Forest Reserve, northwest Peninsular Malaysia, and its adjacent marine waters, Check List 17 (2), pp. 601-631 : 613

Stolephorus mercurius Hata, Lavoué & Motomura, 2021

Material examined. MALAYSIA • 1, 62 mm TL; Kedah State, Kampung Batu Lintang, Pompang Batu Lintang ; 05.624°N, 100.395°E; 17 Jul. 2019; Sébastien Lavoué leg.; USMFC (82) 00050 .

Identification. Species described by Hata et al. (2021). A moderate-sized species of anchovy (maximum TL about 130 mm); body elongated and compressed; large mouth, its corner behind the eye; anal fin short with three unbranched and 16–19 branched fin rays, its origin be- low about middle of dorsal fin base; gill rakers 44–47 (on first gill arch); posterior tip of the maxilla just reach- ing posterior margin of opercle; no predorsal scute; belly not keeled; pelvic scute without spine; small, needle-like prepelvic scutes 2–5; no post-pelvic scutes; body light greyish/brownish with a silver longitudinal stripe from the opercular margin to caudal-fin base; pairs of occipi- tal darkish patches without a following pair of dark, thin stripes (Hata et al. 2021).

Stolephorus mercurius can be easily distinguished from other species of Stolephorus occurring in the Merbok river estuary by its rounded body, no predorsal scute, no dark line on back, and no black spots on suborbital area or lower-jaw tip. Stolephorus mercurius is a predominantly coastal marine species occasionally caught in brackish ecosystems of this region; it is an economically important species. Otherwise, widely distributed in the West Pacific region (Hata et al. 2021).