Stolephorus indicus (van Hasselt, 1823)

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 indicus (van Hasselt, 1823)

Material examined. MALAYSIA • 1, 115 mm TL; Kedah State, Merbok, Pompang Sungai Merbok ; 05.664°N, 100.381°E; 6 Dec. 2018; Danial H. Zainal Abidin, Norli F.M.A.H. Alshari leg.; USMFC (82) 00044 .

Identification. Species rediagnosed by Hata et al. (2021). The largest species of the genus Stolephorus (TL up about 150 mm); body rounded and slender; large mouth, its lateral articulation behind the eye; anal fin short with three unbranched and 15–18 branched fin rays, its ori- gin below about middle of dorsal fin base; gill rakers 36– 43 (on first gill arch); posterior tip of the maxilla pointed reaching posterior margin of opercle; no predorsal scute; belly not keeled; pelvic scute without spine, small needle-like prepelvic scutes 3–5, no post-pelvic scutes; body light greyish/brownish with silvery head; a silver, longitudinal stripe from the opercular margin to caudal-fin base; a pair of black patches behind occiput; no pigment line on back; fins mostly translucent; no black spots on suborbital area or lower-jaw tip.

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