Urolophus sp.

Fig. 13

Material examined.

UPVMI 3116, 191 mm DW, female, Iloilo Fish Port Complex, Iloilo City, Philippines, 8 October 2020, coll. R. P. Babaran.

DNA barcode.

COI sequences were submitted to GenBank under accession numbers OR 614469 (UPVMI 3116, 617 bp) and PQ 461195 (KAUM – I. 62938, 642 bp).

Remarks.

The collected specimen (UPVMI 3116) was initially identified as Urolophus aurantiacus (Mu ̈ ller et Henle, 1841) based on the color photographs and morphological characteristics similar to a specimen (KAUM – I. 62938) also collected from Panay Island, which was identified as U. aurantiacus by Manjaji-Matsumoto (2017). Both specimens from Panay Island exhibit rounded disc apices, a short and pointed snout, and a dorsal spine on the short tail. However, COI gene sequence data from both specimens (KAUM – I. 62938 and UPVMI 3116) showed significant divergence from the available sequences of U. aurantiacus. Instead, the sequences from both specimens cluster more closely with Urolophus expansus McCulloch, 1916 (see Fig. 13).

However, U. expansus is characterized by blotches on the tail area and faint colored bars in front of and behind the eyes (McCulloch 1916; Ebert 2014), which are absent in both specimens from Panay Island. Moreover, U. expansus has only been reported from western and south Australia, in the southeastern Indian Ocean (Fricke et al. 2024). Despite the observed genetic similarity, morphological and biogeographical evidence suggests that the Panay specimens represent a putative unidentified species. Further investigation and comparisons are required to confirm the identification of these specimens.