BACKGROUND Indo-Pacific high island streams experience extreme hydrological variation, and are characterised by freshwater fish species with an amphidromous life history. Amphidromy is a likely adaptation for colonisation of island streams following stochastic events that lead to local extirpation. In the Wet Tropics of north-eastern Australia, steep coastal mountain streams share similar physi...

Elucidating patterns and causes of interaction among mutualistic species is a major focus of ecology, and recent meta-analyses of terrestrial networks show that network-level reciprocal specialization tends to be higher in intimate mutualisms than in nonintimate mutualisms. It is largely unknown, however, whether this pattern holds for and what factors affect specialization in marine mutualisms...

Combining DNA variation data and risk assessment procedures offers important diagnostic and monitoring tools for evaluating the relative success of exotic species invasions. Risk assessment may allow us to understand how the numbers of founding individuals, genetic variants, population sources, and introduction events affect successful establishment and spread. This is particularly important in...

Eviota nigramembrana is described from the Ryukyu Islands, Japan and also recorded from the Philippine Islands. It belongs to the cephalic sensory-pore system pattern group I (complete), has a dorsal/anal fin-ray formula of 8/8, 5th pelvic-fin ray absent, some lower pectoral-fin rays branched, five dark internal bands between anal-fin origin and caudal fin, no distinct marking on pectoral-fin b...

Thalasseleotrididae n. fam. is erected to include two marine genera, Thalasseleotris Hoese & Larson from temperate Australia and New Zealand, and Grahamichthys Whitley from New Zealand. Both had been previously classified in the family Eleotrididae. The Thalasseleotrididae is demonstrably monophyletic on the basis of a single synapomorphy: membrane connecting the hyoid arch to ceratobranchial 1...

Th e family Gobiidae includes what are considered the typical gobies: small, usually marine fishes, with separate spinous and rayed dorsal fins and pelvic fi ns oft en joined into a disc, that live on or in the substrate and are generally inconspicuous. Color patterns may range from brightly patterned to drab and camoufl aged. Th e composition of this family has changed since the description of...

Two specimens of Valenciennea helsdingenii (Bleeker, 1858) were collected off Punnakayal coast, from Gulf of Mannar, southeast coast of India in November 2012. The morphometric and meristic characters of the recorded specimens are described and discussed. This is the first record of the species from the Indian waters that is a range extension of its known range within the Indian Ocean.

schismatogobius deraniyagalai is recorded from the seethanathi river of karnataka state in the southern part of india. previous records of these species were from the streams in kerala of india and from freshwater habitats of sri lanka. herein we report the occurrence of this species in seethanathi river showing its distribution extended further north along the west coast of peninsular india.

Eviota santanai is described based on four specimens from Timor-Leste, taken in 5-8 m depth. In general coloration pattern, the species is most similar to E. latifasciata, but differs in the cephalic sensory-pore system pattern, the absence of an occipital spot, and live color including pinkish-mauve bars. Eviota santanai has a dorsal/anal fin-ray formula of 8/8, 5th pelvic-fin ray absent, some...

A new hovering goby or dartfish is described from material collected in Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama. It is the only species of the cosmopolitan genus Ptereleotris known from the eastern Pacific. It is distinguished from its Western Atlantic and Indo-Pacific congeners by its low fin-ray counts, prominent median keel on the ventral margin of the head, lanceolate caudal fin with dusky lower half...