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There are currently 39 recognized valid species within the family Sillaginidae (Saha et al. 2024).
Five of these species have been documented on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman in Iran: Sillago sihama, Sillago arabica, Sillago attenuata, Sillago indica, and Sillaginopodys chondropus (McKay 1992; Alavi-Yeganeh et al. 2016; Khandan Barani et al. 2023). .
In December 2021, an unknown whiting was landed (holotype) around the province of Bushehr, Iran, in the Arabian Sea, along with 30 other specimens (paratypes).
Unfortunately, no information on the initial description was provided in the initial description, so data on the depth of occurrence and, unfortunately, exact water temperature information are missing.
This new species of whiting was described on the basis of caught fish.
The color of the fresh specimens was recorded as follows:
The top of the head is light brown, while the trunk is also light brown and transitions to silver towards the belly.
The body has no stripes, although the front half of the belly may have some dark pigmentation.
The dorsal fins are hyaline and have small dark spots on the fin membrane.
The pectoral and pelvic fins are light yellowish hyaline; the anal fin is hyaline and free of dark spots, and the caudal fin is yellowish-dark with a black edge along the rear edge.
Furthermore, among the 12 known species of Sillago with two posterior appendages, it can be easily distinguished from Sillago caudicula and Sillago intermedius by its body coloration, as both Sillago intermedius and Sillago caudicula have dark black spots on their bodies.
Sillago persica can also be distinguished from Sillago parvisquamis and Sillago sinica by the presence of dark spots on the membranes of the second dorsal fin, which have five or six rows in Sillago parvisquamis and three or four rows in Sillago sinica.
Furthermore, Sillago persica can be empirically distinguished from Sillago nigrofasciata, Sillago indica, and Sillago shaoi by the coloration of the anal fin: Sillago persica has a hyaline anal fin without black spots, while Sillago nigrofasciata typically has a yellowish anal fin with scattered black spots, and Sillago indica and Sillago shaoi have yellowish-brown anal fins with black dots on the interradial membranes.
In addition, Sillago indica, Sillago suezensis, and Sillago panhwari have a faint median lateral stripe on their bodies, which is not present in Sillago persica.
Etymology.
The species name persica is derived from the Persian Gulf, where the type specimens were collected.
Scientifik reference:
Barani HK, Alavi-Yeganeh MS, Ghanbarifardi M (2025)
Sillago persica sp. nov., a new sillaginid (Perciformes, Sillaginidae) from the Persian Gulf.
ZooKeys 1255: 63-76. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1255.162247
Format via ReFindit
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Five of these species have been documented on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman in Iran: Sillago sihama, Sillago arabica, Sillago attenuata, Sillago indica, and Sillaginopodys chondropus (McKay 1992; Alavi-Yeganeh et al. 2016; Khandan Barani et al. 2023). .
In December 2021, an unknown whiting was landed (holotype) around the province of Bushehr, Iran, in the Arabian Sea, along with 30 other specimens (paratypes).
Unfortunately, no information on the initial description was provided in the initial description, so data on the depth of occurrence and, unfortunately, exact water temperature information are missing.
This new species of whiting was described on the basis of caught fish.
The color of the fresh specimens was recorded as follows:
The top of the head is light brown, while the trunk is also light brown and transitions to silver towards the belly.
The body has no stripes, although the front half of the belly may have some dark pigmentation.
The dorsal fins are hyaline and have small dark spots on the fin membrane.
The pectoral and pelvic fins are light yellowish hyaline; the anal fin is hyaline and free of dark spots, and the caudal fin is yellowish-dark with a black edge along the rear edge.
Furthermore, among the 12 known species of Sillago with two posterior appendages, it can be easily distinguished from Sillago caudicula and Sillago intermedius by its body coloration, as both Sillago intermedius and Sillago caudicula have dark black spots on their bodies.
Sillago persica can also be distinguished from Sillago parvisquamis and Sillago sinica by the presence of dark spots on the membranes of the second dorsal fin, which have five or six rows in Sillago parvisquamis and three or four rows in Sillago sinica.
Furthermore, Sillago persica can be empirically distinguished from Sillago nigrofasciata, Sillago indica, and Sillago shaoi by the coloration of the anal fin: Sillago persica has a hyaline anal fin without black spots, while Sillago nigrofasciata typically has a yellowish anal fin with scattered black spots, and Sillago indica and Sillago shaoi have yellowish-brown anal fins with black dots on the interradial membranes.
In addition, Sillago indica, Sillago suezensis, and Sillago panhwari have a faint median lateral stripe on their bodies, which is not present in Sillago persica.
Etymology.
The species name persica is derived from the Persian Gulf, where the type specimens were collected.
Scientifik reference:
Barani HK, Alavi-Yeganeh MS, Ghanbarifardi M (2025)
Sillago persica sp. nov., a new sillaginid (Perciformes, Sillaginidae) from the Persian Gulf.
ZooKeys 1255: 63-76. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1255.162247
Format via ReFindit
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
