Problems of identification among species of sardinella

In spite of several recent studies, confusion still surrounds on the identification of few Indian clupeoids sucfi as Sardinella, llisha and Thryssa because of their morphological similarity between species, which has severely restricted the useful biological studies CBabu Rao, 1962; Whitehead, 1973; Ramaiyan and Whitehead, 1975; and Wongratana, 1983). Of all the clupeids. the identification of the species of Sardinella by various authors based on meristic and morphomairic characters is often confusing. The identity of S. longiceps, S clupeoids, S. leiogaster, S. sirm based on few meristic and morphometric characters is relatively easy however, the same characters are not satisfactory for S. albelia. S. brachysoma, S. dayi, S. fimbriata, S. gibbosa, S. melanura and S. sirtdensis