AUTHOR=Roul Subal Kumar , Jeena N. S. , Kumar Rajan , Vinothkumar R. , Rahangdale Shikha , Rahuman Summaya , Ghosh Shubhadeep , Rohit Prathibha , Gopalakrishnan Achamveetil 

TITLE=Postulating the Modality of Integrative Taxonomy in Describing the Cryptic Congener Pampus griseus (Cuvier) and Systematics of the Genus Pampus (Perciformes: Stromateidae)

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.778422

DOI=10.3389/fmars.2021.778422

ISSN=2296-7745

ABSTRACT=Pomfrets (genus Pampus), a highly commercial fishery resource distributed in the Indo-western Pacific including Lessepsian migrants, have witnessed series of systematic reforms. In this study, based on a comprehensive sampling spanning the type localities and coevals in the Northern Indian Ocean, the cryptic and valid species Stromateus griseus (Cuvier in Cuvier and Valenciennes, 1833) is resurrected from the synonymy and re-described as Pampus griseus (New Combination) based on 35 specimens from the Bay of Bengal, corroborated with molecular analysis which indicated a confined distribution of the species. Bayesian phylogeny of the genus was reconstructed, incorporating redressed barcodes (582 nucleotides), and concatenated mitochondrial gene sequence data (1822 nucleotides) generated from the three recorded species P. candidus, P. chinensis and the neophyte along with sequences from GenBank entrusting the latest literature. The phylograms differed in topology as for seven valid species, and the one predicated on the concatenated data erected a highly supported polytomous clade for P. cinereus complex (P. griseus, P. cinereus, and P. candidus) which share synapomorphies. Pampus argenteus and P. minor together formed a sister clade to the rest. Climate-driven vicariant events during glacial epochs and the Indo-Pacific Barrier effect can be the drivers behind the Indian and Pacific Ocean sister lineages in P. chinensis. Multivariate analysis isolated the cryptic species from its congeners. This article portrays the systematics revision of genus Pampus deduced from an integrative taxonomic approach compiling distinctive molecular, morphological, and anatomical features, revised key for species identification, taxonomic archives of Indian stromateids, and winds up with specific remarks.