Stolephorus baweanensis Hardenberg, 1933

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 : 611-613

Stolephorus baweanensis Hardenberg, 1933

Material examined. MALAYSIA • 1, 76 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) 00045 .

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 17–20 branched fin rays, its origin be- low about middle of dorsal fin base; gill rakers 33–38 (on first gill arch); posterior tip of the maxilla just reaching posterior margin of opercle; no predorsal scute; belly not keeled; pelvic scute without spine, small needle-like prepelvic scutes 5–7; no post-pelvic scutes; body light greyish/brownish with a silver longitudinal stripe from the opercular margin to caudal-fin base; no dark pigment line on back.

Stolephorus baweanensis can be easily distinguished from other species of Stolephorus occurring in this region by “numerous black spots on suborbital area (in adults), snout and tip of lower jaw” ( Hata et al. 2020:21). Previously identified as Stolephorus waitei Jordan & Seale, 1926 (e.g., Tongnunui et al. 2002) but S. waitei is endemic to the Australian region ( Hata et al. 2020). Stolephorus baweanensis is a predominantly coastal marine species. Although commonly caught in brackish

ecosystems of this region, they do not seem to form large schools. Widely distributed in the northern Indo-West Pacific region ( Hata et al. 2020).