Gazza minuta ( Bloch, 1795 )

Miki, Ryohei, Murase, Atsunobu & Wada, Masaaki, 2018, A checklist of ponyfishes (Teleostei, Leiognathidae) from Miyazaki Prefecture, east coast of Kyushu, southern Japan, with range extensions of three tropical species, Check List 14 (1), pp. 243-255 : 247

Gazza minuta ( Bloch, 1795) : Figure 2I, J

Scomber minutus Bloch 1795: 110 .

Gazza minuta — Woodland et al. 2001: 2799; Chakrabarty et al. 2010: 113; Kimura 2011: 112; Allen and Erdmann 2012: 441; Kottelat 2013: 338; Senou 2013: 900; Fujiwara and Motomura 2016: 193; Kimura 2017: 124.

Diagnosis. This species is characterized by the following combination of characters: mouth protruding forwards, with distinct canine teeth on both jaws; scaled area of anterior dorsolateral surface of body extending anteriorly beyond a vertical through posterior tip of sensory canal on temporal ( Senou 2013).

Distribution. Gazza minuta is widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific. In Japanese waters, this species is known from northern and southern coasts of Miyazaki Prefecture, Uchinoura Bay (Pacific coast), the coast of Minami-satsuma City of Kagoshima Prefecture (East China Sea), Tanega-shima Island, the Ryukyu Islands, and Yaeyama Islands ( Fig. 1, Table 1: Senou 2013, Fujiwara and Motomura 2016, this study).

Remarks. The present record of 106 specimens (34.0– 103.1 mm SL) and frequency of catchment (over autumn–winter period) indicates that Gazza minuta is a common species along the coasts of Miyazaki Prefecture. Previously, the northernmost record of the species was Uchinoura Bay, southeastern coast of Kyushu ( Fujiwara and Motomura 2016), and the present specimens of G. minuta from Kadogawa Bay extend the known distributional range of the species ca 150 km north-northeast from Uchinoura Bay.