Occurrence of the tropical eels Anguilla bengalensis bengalensis and Anguilla bicolor bicolor in Peninsular Malaysia and implications for eel taxonomy

Variations in the migratory history of the tropical catadromous eels Anguilla bicolor bicolor and A. bicolor pacifica in south‐east Asian waters

“…In the Bonin and the Amami Islands, A. marmorata could live in every environment with no interspecific competition; thus estuarine‐dependent eels may be more abundant than in the Philippines and Taiwan. Similarly, only A. bicolor bicolor was found in the Pinang River region in Malaysia in our study, although A. bengalensis bengalensis was only found in Penang Island (Arai et al , ; Arai & Abdul Kadir, ). Thus, A. bicolor bicolor could also live in every environment.…”

Validation of occurrence of tropical shads, Tenualosa ilisha (Hamilton, 1822) and T. toli (Valenciennes, 1847) (Teleostei, Clupeidae), in Malaysian waters

“…For example, Arai and Amalina (2014) reported T. ilisha in Malaysian waters but based their identification only on external morphological characters. However, misidentifications are known to result from damaged or poor specimens and ambiguous morphological features (Arai and Wong 2016). Morphological characters are ineffective to distinguish species at some stages of development (Ward et al 2009).…”

“…The identification of tropical shads to species solely on morphological characters is difficult because of similarities and overlapping characteristics which can lead to misidentifications (FAO 2012, Arai and Amalina 2014). Recently, several authors have suggested that to be accurate, species identifications need to be validated by molecular genetic analyses (Arai et al 2015, Arai and Wong 2016, Abdul Kadir et al 2017. Thus, identification of tropical shad species require the use of both traditional morphological characters and molecular genetic analyses, which we do here for T. ilisha and T. toli from Malaysian waters.…”

New Records of the Goatfish, Upeneus Vittatus (Forsskal 1775) and Upeneus Supravittatus (Uiblein and Heemstra 2010) (Preciformes, Mullidae), From Saint Martin’s Island in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh

“…For example, only three species of this genus, U. sulphureus (Tomascik 1997), U. sundaicus and U. tragula (Rahman et al 2009) are reported in Bangladesh waters based on their identification only on external morphological characters. However, misidentifications are known to result from damaged or poor specimens and ambiguous morphological features (Arai and Wong 2016). Morphological characters are ineffective to distinguish species at some stages of development (Ward et al 2009).…”

“…Morphological characters are ineffective to distinguish species at some stages of development (Ward et al 2009). Several authors have suggested that molecular genetic analyses are necessary for precise species confirmation (Arai et al 2015, Arai and Wong 2016, Kadir et al 2017. However, on the basis of morphological characters and DNA barcoding, U. vittatus and U. supravittatus were newly recorded in Bangladesh.…”