Molecular phylogeny and morphological characteristics of the reef margin blenny, Entomacrodus striatus (Valenciennes, 1836) from the Gulf of Oman (Actinopteri: Blenniiformes Blenniidae)

Molecular phylogenetic relationship and morphological characteristics of the reef margin blenny, Entomacrodus striatus was undertaken in order to clarify its taxonomic status in the Iranian coasts of the Gulf of Oman. Entomacrodus striatus is distributed in the Indo-Pacific realm.

This study is based on four samples taken from Chabahar in the northern Gulf of Oman, during February 2019. The mt-DNA marker (COI) of one E. striatus from the present study and 15 Entomacrodus species was used for reverification over traditional morpho-taxonomy.

Bayesian Inference (BI) and Maximum Likelihood (ML) approaches result in five clades including, clade A (Entomacrodus corneliae, E. chiostictus, E. nigricans, E. sealei, E. cymatobiotus, E. caudofasciatus), clade B (E. striatus, E. niuafoouensis, E. epalzeocheilos, E. randalli), clade C (E. macrospilus, E. thalassinus), clade D (E. vermiculatus, E. decussatus), and clade E (E. stellifer). The morphological characters of the examined materials were in the range of its original description, except in having a pair of pores in one position of the preopercular series of sensory pores, which may be hypothesized a population variation associated with geographical distribution. The sexual dimorphism is distinguishable especially in color pattern of specimens which the blotches and bands on the male bodies are more bolded than the female ones. 

The inferred ML and BI trees resulted a homological clustering of taxa that are grouped according to their morphological characteristics and were agree with molecular reconstructions based on nuclear markers.