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A new Sillago species, the black-banded sillago, Sillago nigrofasciata sp. nov., is described based on 302 specimens sampled from the southern coast of China. Morphological comparisons have been conducted between the new species and ten other Sillago species. The results show that the new species is characterized by a black mid-lateral band below the lateral line when fresh; other characteristics are similar to those of Sillago sihama but subtle differences exist on the swim bladder between Sillago nigrofasciata sp. nov. and S. sihama . A detailed description and illustrations are provided for the new species. The validity of this new species is also supported by a genetic comparison using sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Sillaginopsis panijus has been determined for the first time using Sanger Dideoxy DNA sequencing. The mitogenome is a circular molecule of 16,529 bp in length. It contains 37 mitochondrial genes (13 protein-coding genes, two ribosomal RNA, and 22 transfer RNA) and a control region as other bony fishes. In the phylogenetic analysis using 12H-strand protein-coding genes, monotypic S. panijus is situated separately from the genus Sillago. The present phylogeny supports its taxonomic position according to morphology and will be helpful for evolutionary analysis.

Simple Summary A comprehensive transcriptome analysis revealed the phylogeny of seven Sillago species. Selection force analysis in seven Sillago species detected 44 genes positively selected relative to other Perciform fishes. The results of the present study can be used as a reference for the further adaptive evolution study of Sillago species. Abstract Sillago species lives in the demersal environments and face multiple stressors, such as localized oxygen depletion, sulfide accumulation, and high turbidity. In this study, we performed transcriptome analyses of seven Sillago species to provide insights into the phylogeny and positively selected genes of this species. After de novo assembly, 82,024, 58,102, 63,807, 85,990, 102,185, 69,748, and 102,903 unigenes were generated from S. japonica, S. aeolus, S. sp.1, S. sihama, S. sp.2, S. parvisquamis, and S. sinica, respectively. Furthermore, 140 shared orthologous exon markers were identified and then applied to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships of the seven Sillago species. The reconstructed phylogenetic structure was significantly congruent with the prevailing morphological and molecular biological view of Sillago species relationships. In addition, a total of 44 genes were identified to be positively selected, and these genes were potential participants in the stress response, material (carbohydrate, amino acid and lipid) and energy metabolism, growth and differentiation, embryogenesis, visual sense, and other biological processes. We suspected that these genes possibly allowed Sillago species to increase their ecological adaptation to multiple environmental stressors.

The age composition, growth parameters, size distribution and sex ratio of Sillago suezensis caught from Iskenderun Bay in Northeastern Mediterranean Sea were investigated. Female and male composition of the population was determined as 40.37 and 59.63%, respectively. Total length of females ranged between 12.30 and 24.20 cm, while it was between 11.50 and 22.50 cm for males. The length (L)-weight (W) relationships for males and females were estimated as W = 0.0071 x L-3.014 and W = 0.0070 x L-3.020, respectively. Age data derived from otolith readings were used to estimate the growth parameters of the von Bertalanffy equation. The estimated parameters for all individuals were: L-infinity = 35.65 cm, K = 0.299 year(-1) and t(0) = -0.288 year. Asymptotic length L-infinity revealed greater growth for males than females. Growth constant K was slightly higher in females than in males. The maximum age was 5 years for females and males. The 1-year-old group was dominant amongst males whereas the 2-year-old group was dominant within females. The condition factor was 0.739 +/- 0.005 for females and 0.742 +/- 0.004 for males. Spawning period of S. suezensis determined to be between April and August. Overall total mortality was estimated as 0.96 year(-1), natural mortality was 0.85 year(-1) and fishing mortality was 0.11 year(-1).

We used the cytochrome oxidase subunit I (coI) gene DNA to barcode 117 endemic Gulf and cosmopolitan Indo-West Pacific fish species belonging to 54 families and 13 orders. Novel DNA barcodes were provided for 18 fish species (Trachinocephalus sp., Nematalosa sp., Herklotsichthys lossei, Upeneus doriae, Trachurus indicus, Apogonichthyoides taeniatus, Verulux cypselurus, Favonigobius sp., Suezichthus gracilis, Sillago sp., Brachirus orientalis, Pegusa sp., Lepidotrigla bispinosa, Lepidotrigla sp., Grammoplites suppositus, Hippichthys sp., Paramonacanthus sp. and Triacanthus sp.). The species delimitation analysis, conducted with Poisson tree processes- Bayesian PTP (PTP-bPTP) and nucleotide-divergence-threshold (NDT) models), found 137 and 119 entities respectively. Overall, NDT method, neighbour-joining species tree and the prior taxonomic assessment provided similar results. Among the 54 families considered, only 10 (Ariommatidae, Ephippidae, Leiognathidae, Nemipteridae, Plotosidae, Pomacanthidae, Pomacentridae, Priacanthidae and Rachycentridae) showed the occurrence of molecular diagnostic pure characters. The DNA barcoding database developed during this study will help ichthyologists to identify and resolve the taxonomic ambiguities they may encounter with the fishes occurring in The Gulf and throughout the region.

A single specimen of the genus Sillago, collected from Gwangyang, Korea, in May 2009, is characterized by XI first dorsal fin spines, 3 or 4 rows of melanophore pattern along the second dorsal fin membrane, and a darkish posterior margin of the caudal fin. Our specimen was identified as Sillago sinica reported as a new species; this identification is confirmed by mitochondrial DNA cytochrome oxidase subunit I sequences, which show that our specimen corresponds to S. sinica (d=0.000) and differs from the congeneric species Sillago parvisquamis (d=0.170). Comparisons of Korean specimens previously reported as S. parvisquamis with specimens of S. sinica show that the S. parvisquamis specimens are actually S. sinica. We propose the new Korean name “buk-bang-jeom-bo-ri-myeol” for S. sinica.

Nine morphologically distinct species of Macvicaria Gibson & Bray, 1982 were recovered from six families, ten genera and twelve species of marine fishes in the waters off the coast of Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia: M. shotteri n. sp. in Apogon fasciatus (type-host), Sillaginodes punctatus and Sillago bassensis from Moreton Bay (type-locality), off southern Western Australia and off Kangaroo Island, South Australia; M. mekistomorphe n. sp. in Sillago maculata from Moreton Bay; M. mutovitellina n. sp. in Dactylophora nigricans from off southern Western Australia; M. flexuomeatus n. sp. in Goniistius gibbosus (type-host) and Cheilodactylus rubrolabiatus from southern Western Australia; M. vitellocopiosa n. sp. in Sillaginodes punctatus from off Kangaroo Island, South Australia; M. dextrocaula n. sp. in Notolabrus parilus (type-host) and N. fucicola (Richardson) (Labridae) from off southern Western Australia (type-locality) and Kangaroo Island, South Australia; M. heronensis Bray & Cribb, 1989 in Trachinotus coppingeri off Stradbroke Island, Queensland; M. adomeae n. sp. in Sillaginodes punctatus off Kangaroo Island, South Australia; M. kingscotensis n. sp. in Neoodax balteatus (type-host) and Haletta semifasciata off Kangaroo Island, South Australia. We have used the following characters to distinguish between the species of Macvicaria: general body form; length/width ratio; size of cirrussac; length of forebody; post-testicular extent of caeca; egg size; and the position of the genital pore. Most of the species of Macvicaria showed interspecific differences in all of the characters enumerated, the most dramatic being in the position of the genital pore in one species. All 11 specimens recovered from 2 species of Notolabrus were found to have a dextral genital pore. This is the second report of amphitypy in the Opecoelidae. All of the host species, apart from Apogon fasciatus, are endemic to Australian or Australian and New Zealand waters. New combinations formed are: M. dactylopagri (Manter, 1954); M. deeghaensis (Gupta & Gupta, 1988); M. eleuthoronemae (Wang, Wang & Zhang, 1992); M. gerridis (Fischthal & Thomas 1970); M. hunghuaensis (Qiu & Li in Shen & Qiu, 1995); M. longicirrata (Manter, 1963); M. oligolecithosus (Wang, Wang & Zhang, 1992); M. synagris (Yamaguti, 1952).