Stolephorus tri (Bleeker, 1852)

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 : 613-615

Stolephorus tri (Bleeker, 1852)

Figure 3F

Material examined. MALAYSIA • 1, 94 mm TL; Kedah State, Kuala Kedah, Kuala Muda Whispering Market ; 05.578°N, 100.341°E; 6 Dec. 2018; Danial H. Zainal Abidin, Norli F.M.A.H. Alshari leg.; USMFC (82) 00039 .

Identification. Species recently rediagnosed by Hata et al. (2020); a small species of anchovy (maximum TL about 100 mm); body elongated and compressed; large mouth, its corner behind the eye; anal fin short with three unbranched and 15–19 branched fin rays, its origin below about middle of dorsal fin base; gill rakers 32–39 (on first gill arch); posterior tip of the maxilla pointed reaching or beyond posterior margin of opercle; small predorsal scute and pelvic scute with spine, belly not keeled; small needle-like prepelvic scutes 4–6, no post-pelvic scutes; body light greyish/brownish with a silver stripe from the opercular margin to caudal-fin base; a pair of blackish patches behind occiput followed by a pair of black pigment lines on back; caudal fin whitish-yellow with black margins; no black spots on suborbital area or lower-jaw tip.

Stolephorus tri is identifiable from all other species of Stolephorus (except S. dubiosus ) occurring in the Merbok estuary by the spine-like predorsal and pelvic scutes. Stolephorus tri can be distinguished from S. dubiosus by its lower number of gill rakers. A common coastal species which frequently occurs in brackish environments. Stolephorus tri is distributed in the central part of the Indo West Pacific region ( Hata et al. 2020).