Leiognathus equulus ( Forsskål, 1775 )

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 : 249

Leiognathus equulus ( Forsskål, 1775) : Figure 3A, B

Scomber equula Forsskål 1775: 58 .

Leiognathus equulus — Woodland et al. 2001: 2808; Eguchi et al. 2008: 19; Chakrabarty et al. 2010: 114; Kimura 2011: 113; Allen and Erdmann 2012: 442; Kottelat 2013: 339; Senou 2013: 903; Fujiwara and Motomura 2016: 195; Kimura 2017: 124.

Diagnosis. This species is characterized by the following combination of characters: mouth protruding downwards; small slender teeth on both jaws; anterior dorsolateral surface of body completely scaled; breast completely naked; second dorsal and anal-fin spines slightly elongated, but not filamentous; dorsolateral body with numerous narrow dark vertical lines; no yellowish spots on the body ( Senou 2013).

Distribution. Leiognathus equulus is widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific. In Japanese waters, this species is known from Kita-gawa river and Kadogawa Bay, the northern part of Miyazaki Prefecture (Pacific coast), Amami Island, and the Ryukyu Islands ( Fig. 1, Table 1: Senou 2013, Fujiwara and Motomura 2016, this study).

Remarks. Leiognathus equulus was not collected in our survey. However, Eguchi et al. (2008) published a list of fishes of the Kita-gawa river, Nobeoka City, northern part of Miyazaki Prefecture, including L. equulus with a voucher specimen number (as FRLK-070265, thereafter KYUM-PI 1373). However, this record did not provide any basis of identification nor mention its distribution range. We can confirm here that this specimen ( Fig. 3B) is L. equulus . In addition to this specimen, a single individual photographed from Kadogawa Bay (KPM-NR 176728, Fig. 3A) was recorded in our study. Although the northernmost record of the species was previously Amami Island, the northern part of Ryukyu Islands ( Senou 2013, Fujiwara and Motomura 2016), the present specimens of L. equulus from Kita-gawa river extend the known distribution range of the species ca 500 km northnortheastward from Amami Island.