Description and DNA Barcoding of a New Sillago Species, Sillago shaoi (Perciformes: Sillaginidae), in the Taiwan Strait

Jia-Guang Xiao, Na Song, Zhi-Qiang Han, and Tian-Xiang Gao (2016) Reliance only on morphology to identify fishes to the species level is challenging when the diagnostic characters are similar among related taxa. Within the genus Sillago, differences among some nominal species are generally small and restricted to a few characters. In this study, a new species of Sillago (Sillago shaoi sp. nov.) was described using morphology and genetic analysis of DNA barcoding. The morphological results differentiated S. shaoi sp. nov. from eight other Sillago spp. Genetic analysis verified both the validity of the current taxonomy and the relationships between the new species and other Sillago species. S. shaoi sp. nov. formed a monophyletic group as a distinct phylogenetic species and showed strong genetic divergence from others. The present study also revealed that the COI gene was an effective molecular marker for identifying Sillago species.