New Deep-water Species of Lizardfish (Synodontidae) from the South China Sea and Central Philippines

A new species of lizardfish, Saurida weijeni sp. nov., is described from specimens collected during a deep-water trawl survey of the Macclesfield Bank and from a fish market at Guimaras Island, Western Visayas, Philippines. S. weijeni belongs to the S. undosquamis group of species. It appears to be most closely related to S. macrolepis described from Japan but differs from that species in having 47–49 vertebrae (versus 45–47) and is genetically distinct (K2P genetic difference 12.3%). The haplotype of S. weijeni from the Philippines is identical to a GenBank sequence for S. umeyoshii from the South China Sea, but this is clearly a misidentification, and highlights the growing problem of incorrect species identification in public sequence databases such as GenBank, and the importance of accurate taxonomic identification and/or verification using museum voucher specimens in DNA barcoding and systematic studies.

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