Status of Pempheris russellii

Sir Francis Day (1876: 175) identified two species of Pempheris in his Fishes of India: P. mangula and P. molucca . Day (1888: 788) wrote corrections: “For Pempheris mangula read P. malabarica ” and “For Pempheris molucca read P. Russellii .” Koeda et al. (2014: 309) mistakenly included Pempheris russellii Day as a synonym of P. mangula Cuvier. The type locality of Pempheris russellii is Sind, in what is now Pakistan. It is distinct from P. mangula in having longer pectoral fins (3.2–3.4 in SL vs. 3.5–3.65 for P. mangula) and more gill rakers (30–32 vs. 27–30 for P. mangula).