The Soringa whiting, ''Sillago soringa'' (also known simply as Soringa or Soringa sillago), is a poorly known species of coastal

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

fish of the smelt-whiting family,

Sillaginidae The Sillaginidae, commonly known as the smelt-whitings, whitings, sillaginids, sand borers and sand-smelts, are a family of benthic coastal marine fish in the order Perciformes. The smelt-whitings inhabit a wide region covering much of the Indo ...

. The Soringa whiting is known exclusively from the east coast of India, inhabiting shallow

inshore A shore or a shoreline is the fringe of land at the edge of a large body of water, such as an ocean, sea, or lake. In physical oceanography, a shore is the wider fringe that is geologically modified by the action of the body of water past a ...

environments, particularly sandy substrates. ''S. soringa'' was first described in 1982 by Dutt and Sujatha, with the

taxonomic Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

status of the species was questioned by Roland McKay in his review of the Sillaginidae, with similar features to '' S. asiatica'' suggesting it is a senior synonym of the latter.

Taxonomy and naming

The Soringa whiting is one of 29 species in the genus '' Sillago'', which is one of three divisions of the smelt whiting family

. The smelt-whitings are Perciformes in the

suborder Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...

Percoidea. The species was first scientifically described by S. Dutt and J. Sujatha in 1982 based on a specimen taken from the western Bay of Bengal (near the Indian city of Visakhapatnam), which was later designated to be the holotype. The specimen was accidentally caught whilst carrying out a taxonomic study on ladyfish in the region, with a minitrawler being used to sample the area. Whilst reviewing the Sillaginidae, Roland McKay was unable to examine the holotype, but concedes ''S. soringa'' is very similar to ''S. asiatica'' morphologically, and is probably

synonymous A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

. McKay described ''S. asiatica'' in 1983, while ''S. soringa'' was described in 1982, thus giving it preference and rendering ''S. asiatica'' a

junior synonym The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linna ...

. Without the holotype, however, McKay retained both species pending further detailed studies on the species. The species is commonly referred to as 'Soringa whiting', 'Soringa sillago' or simply 'Soringa', the name given to the fish on the Indian coast, and from which the specific name of the fish is derived.

Description

The smelt-whitings are all very similar in their body morphology and external anatomy, with the Soringa whiting no exception. The species has a slightly compressed, elongate body tapering toward the terminal

mouth In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...

, with a concave-up dorsal profile and a straight ventral profile. The maximum reported size for the Soringa whiting is 15 cm. The fin anatomy is highly useful for identification purposes, with the species having 11 spines in the first dorsal fin, with one spine and 21

soft ray Fish anatomy is the study of the form or morphology of fish. It can be contrasted with fish physiology, which is the study of how the component parts of fish function together in the living fish. In practice, fish anatomy and fish physiology co ...

s on the second dorsal fin. The

anal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

has two spines with 22 soft rays posterior to the spines. The pectoral fins have 15-16 soft rays while the ventral fin consists of a single spine and 5 soft rays.

Lateral line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelial ...

scale Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...

s and cheek scales are also distinctive, with Soringa whiting possessing 64 to 68 lateral line scales and cheek scales positioned in 2 rows, the upper cycloid and the lower ctenoid. The rest of the body is covered in ctenoid scales. The amount of vertebrae is also diagnostic, having 34 in total. The swimbladder is the major distinguishing feature, being lancolate with a single median finger like extensions and a pair of recurved anterior extensions each side. There is a single post coelomic extension, and a central blind tubular duct arising in on the ventral side of the swimbladder. The Soringa whiting is a gray brown on the dorsal and upper flanks, becoming paler laterally, while the lower flanks and ventral surface are a milky white. Small discrete black spots populate the anterior dorsal fin membrane, becoming more numerous toward the anterior half of the fin. The soft dorsal fin has a continuous grey band, running parallel to and close to the anterior edge of each ray. The membrane of the anal fin has similar black dots to the dorsal, but to a lesser extent. The pectoral fin and ventral fins are golden to

hyaline A hyaline substance is one with a glassy appearance. The word is derived from el, ὑάλινος, translit=hyálinos, lit=transparent, and el, ὕαλος, translit=hýalos, lit=crystal, glass, label=none. Histopathology Hyaline cartilage is ...

while the caudal fin is hyaline with black dots.

Distribution and habitat

The Soringa whiting is currently only known from the east coast of India and thus only from a small area of the Indian Ocean. Is likely the range of the species may be greater than this however, due to confusion with '' S. asiatica'' and '' S. sihama'', resulting in the small reported range. Soringa whiting, like most sillaginids is an

species and is known to inhabit sandy substrates at 5 to 30 m depth. Researchers studying digenean parasites on sillaginids have noted ''S. soringa'', '' S. lutea'' and '' S. indica'' show seasonal migrations where the juveniles occur in shallow coastal waters during winter months and move

offshore Offshore may refer to: Science and technology * Offshore (hydrocarbons) * Offshore construction, construction out at sea * Offshore drilling, discovery and development of oil and gas resources which lie underwater through drilling a well * Off ...

during summer. Nothing else is known of the species biology or ecology. Due to confusion with other species, its contribution to local

fisheries Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life; or more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a. fishing ground). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, both ...

is unknown, possibly being locally important.

References

External links

''Sillago soringa'' at Fishbase
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2458512 Sillaginidae Fish of India Taxa named by Someshwar Dutt Pathak Taxa named by Sujatha Kandula Fish described in 1983