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Ambassis octava, a new glass-perchlet species (Teleostei: Ovalentaria: Ambassidae) from Peninsular Malaysia

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Abstract

Ambassis octava sp. nov. (Teleostei: Ambassidae) is described on the basis of eight specimens collected from the west and east coasts of Peninsular Malaysia. The new species closely resembles Ambassis nalua (Hamilton 1822), both species having body about twice as long as deep, continuous lateral line, no nasal spine and two transverse scale rows on cheek. However, the new species is distinguishable from A. nalua by having second anal-fin ray shorter than third one (vs. equal or longer), 15–17 gill rakers on lower limb of first branchial arch (vs. 19–21), more predorsal scale count (13 or 14) (vs. 11 or 12, modally 12), and interopercle lower margin and preorbital ridge smooth (vs. serrate). In addition, A. nalua and the new species are separated by 14.5% mean uncorrected p-distance in the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene. The description of A. octava is only the second description of a new species of Ambassis in Southeast Asia in the last 100 years.

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Data availability of data and materials

GenBank accession numbers are provided in Table 1. All specimens examined in this study have been deposited in museum collections (see Table 1). All morphometric and meristic data of the species described in this study are shown in Tables 2 and 3. Specimen’s measurements are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Simon Loader, Oliver Crimmen, James Maclaine and Nemo Martin (Natural History Museum, London) for accepting our photo requests of the two specimens BMNH 1858.8.15.123. We are especially grateful to James Maclaine for bringing our attention to the nomenclatural status of these two specimens and for examining them. Richard van der Laan and Ron Fricke (Eschmeyer’s Catalog of Fishes) helped with the nomenclature of the genus Ambassis. Comments from two anonymous reviewers significantly improved the content of this manuscript. We thank Jamsari Amirul Firdaus, Norli Fauzani, Luqman Hakim, Hanif Iryani, Mohd Ilham Norhakim and Muhammad Fahmi for their aid and companionship during field works. This work was funded by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (KeTSA), Malaysia, under National Conservation Trust Fund for Natural Resources (NCTF) (304.PBIOLOGI.6501239.K130). This paper is part of the doctoral study of Siti Zafirah Ghazali, funded by a full scholarship of the Biasiswa Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (BUMT).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Marine Biotechnology, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030, Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia

    Siti Zafirah Ghazali, Siti Azizah Mohd Nor & Min Pau Tan

  2. School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

    Sébastien Lavoué

  3. Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Abdullah Halim Muhammad-Rasul

Authors
  1. Siti Zafirah Ghazali
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  2. Sébastien Lavoué
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  3. Siti Azizah Mohd Nor
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  4. Abdullah Halim Muhammad-Rasul
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  5. Min Pau Tan
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Contributions

All authors collected specimens and worked on the data. The first and second authors prepared the first draft of this manuscript. All authors read and commented on the first draft and approved the final version of this manuscript.

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Correspondence to Sébastien Lavoué.

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Ghazali, S.Z., Lavoué, S., Mohd Nor, S.A. et al. Ambassis octava, a new glass-perchlet species (Teleostei: Ovalentaria: Ambassidae) from Peninsular Malaysia. Ichthyol Res 71, 83–94 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-023-00913-5

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