Systematic Status of six Mugilidae Species in the Ivorian Lagoons

We applied a meristic characters and stomach shapes description approach to resolve the taxonomic status among two genera and six species (Mugil curema Valenciennes, 1836, Mugil cephalus Linnaeus, 1758, Mugil bananensis (Pellegrin, 1927), Liza grandisquamis Valenciennes, 1836, Liza dumerili (Steindachner, 1870), Liza falcipinnis (Valenciennes, 1836) of the Mugilidae family living in the Ivorian Lagoons. Moreover the systematic relationship of M. bananensis among other mullet species was investigated in the present study for the first time. Hierarchical cluster analyses of meristic characters in the present study were very discriminative in terms of taxonomic classification of the mullets. According to meristic data in UPGMA tree, all six species were grouped in two main branching. In the first branch, L. falcipinnis and L. grandisquamis were clustered as closest taxa, and being the sister group to the Mugil curema. In the second branch, L. dumerili and M bananensis were clustered as a most differentiated species respectly from all other Liza and Mugil species. L. dumerili described in this study was near to those described in Lower Guinea that those described in Ivory Coast. Liza genus is probably non-monophyletic assemblage. The stomach of the Mugil genus species were characterized by two pyloric caeca contrary to the species of Liza genus that had more than two pyloric caeca. However, stomach shapes were different between these species except to M. curema and M. bananensis.