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Two chaenopsid fishes,Neoclinus chihiroeandNeoclinus lacunicola, were collected from Sadogashima Island, the Sea of Japan. The collected specimens represent the northernmost records of the two species and the first voucher specimens from the Sea of Japan. Morphological information and colour photographs, including underwater photos, of these specimens were provided. Additional photographic evidence from Tobi-shima Island, ~100 km north-north-east of Sadogashima Island, further extended the northernmost record ofNeoclinus lacunicola.

Chelidoperca pleurospilus (Günther, 1880) (Perciformes: Serranidae) is redescribed on the basis of the lectotype (designated herein) and 69 non-type specimens from the eastern Indian and western Pacific oceans, ranging from the Andaman Sea east to New Caledonia, and northwestern Australia north to Japan. Literature records of the species from the Red Sea and Madagascar are considered applicable to Chelidoperca occipitalis Kotthaus 1973. Chelidoperca pleurospilus is characterized by the following combination of characters: pectoral-fin rays 14–16 (modally 15); pored lateral-line scales 40–43 (43); scale rows in longitudinal series 42–47 (44); scale rows between lateral line and base of 6th dorsal-fin spine 4 (3 full-sized scales plus 1 half-sized); interorbital scales reaching mid-orbit level, not extending beyond anterior margin of orbit; scales on lower jaw ventral surface restricted to angular, not extending anteriorly onto dentary; posterior tip of upper caudal-fin lobe slightly elongate with rounded or pointed contour, that of lower lobe not elongate, with rounded or truncate contour; longitudinal row of ca. 5 dark, laterally elongate blotches (more-or-less continuous in small specimens <60 mm SL) along mid-body from behind head to caudal-fin base. The species is compared with its congeners, and morphological changes with growth in the former discussed in detail.

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Puffer and porcupine fishes (families Diodontidae and Tetraodontidae, order Tetradontiformes) are known for their extraordinary ability to triple their body size by swallowing and retaining large amounts of seawater in their accommodating stomachs. This inflation mechanism provides a defence to predation; however, it is associated with the secondary loss of the stomach's digestive function. Ingestion of alkaline seawater during inflation would make acidification inefficient (a potential driver for the loss of gastric digestion), paralleled by the loss of acid–peptic genes. We tested the hypothesis of stomach inflation as a driver for the convergent evolution of stomach loss by investigating the gastric phenotype and genotype of four distantly related stomach inflating gnathostomes: sargassum fish, swellshark, bearded goby and the pygmy leatherjacket. Strikingly, unlike in the puffer/porcupine fishes, we found no evidence for the loss of stomach function in sargassum fish, swellshark and bearded goby. Only the pygmy leatherjacket (Monochanthidae, Tetraodontiformes) lacked the gastric phenotype and genotype. In conclusion, ingestion of seawater for inflation, associated with loss of gastric acid secretion, is restricted to the Tetraodontiformes and is not a selective pressure for gastric loss in other reported gastric inflating fishes.

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