Abstract
Spotted sea bass (Lateolabrax maculatus, McClelland, 1844) is a species belonging to the genus Lateolabrax (Lateolabracidae), and is characterized by the many distinct black spots on the bodies of mature fish. For the first time, six specimens have been recorded in Quang Ninh province. The specimens were collected from Luon Cave in Bai Tu Long National Park in May-June 2019. The new specimens collected from Quang Ninh, Vietnam are different from the recorded specimens from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China in terms of lateral line scales (LLS) as the samples collected in Quang Ninh, Vietnam have 94-97 scales and the samples collected from the other countries have 66-82 scales. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rDNA sequence confirmed that all of the samples collected in Quang Ninh, Vietnam belonged to the species of spotted sea bass.
Highlights
The family Lateolabbracidae, order Perciformes, is comprised of eight species and three genera worldwide, including the genus Lateolabrax, which consists of three species: sea bass (SB), Lateolabrax japonicus (Cuvier, 1828); spotted sea bass (SSB), Lateolabrax maculatus (McClelland, 1844); and blackfin sea bass, Lateolabrax latus (Katayama, 1957) (Bae et al, 2016)
The new specimens collected from Quang Ninh, Vietnam are different from the recorded specimens from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China in terms of lateral line scales (LLS) as the samples collected in Quang Ninh, Vietnam have 94-97 scales and the samples collected from the other countries have 66-82 scales
They could be assigned to L. maculatus based on morphological characters and molecular data, and we reported spotted sea bass adults from Vietnam for the first time
Summary
The family Lateolabbracidae, order Perciformes, is comprised of eight species and three genera worldwide, including the genus Lateolabrax, which consists of three species: sea bass (SB), Lateolabrax japonicus (Cuvier, 1828); spotted sea bass (SSB), Lateolabrax maculatus (McClelland, 1844); and blackfin sea bass, Lateolabrax latus (Katayama, 1957) (Bae et al, 2016). L. maculatus (widely considered to be a color variant of L. japonicus) is characterized by many clear black dots on the dorsolateral body, whereas on L. japonicus, the black dots are absent or faded in adult fish (Katayama, 1984; Kang, 2000). Because some individuals of L. japonicus have black spots on the dorsolateral body, even in the adult stages, distinguishing between the two species solely based on the presence of black spots is difficult (Bae et al, 2016)
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