A contribution to the taxonomy of the marine fish genus Argyrosomus (Perciformes: Sciaenidae), with descriptions of two new species from southern Africa.

Study of the biology, anatomy and taxonomy of the sciaenid fishes of the genus Argyrosomus from South Africa and Namibia revealed that three species were confused under the name "Argyrosomus hololepidotus (Lacepede, 1801)". Comparison of morphometric and meristic data, otoliths, swim-bladders, drumming muscles, and other morphological features, of specimens from southern Africa, Madagascar, the Mediterranean Sea, the eastern Atlantic Ocean, Japan and Australia, established that the "A. hololepidotus" of recent authors is a complex of four species: A. japonicus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1843), which occurs off southern Africa, Japan and Australia; A. inodorus sp. nov., which is known from Namibia to the Kei River (32 degrees 40' S) on the east coast of South Africa; A. coronus sp. nov., which is known from central and northern Namibia and Angola, and A. hololepidotus, which appears to be endemic to Madagascar. These four species are compared with A. regius (Asso, 1801) of the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, A. thorpei Smith, 1977 from South Africa, Mozambique and the west coast of Madagascar, and A. beccus Sasaki, 1994 known only from Durban harbour. To promote stability in the nomenclature and to resolve the confusion in the taxonomy of Argyrosomus species, neotypes are selected for A. hololepidotus and A. japonicus . The biology, distributions and fisheries of six species are reviewed. Distribution patterns for the southern African species and a key to the seven species known from Africa and Madagascar (A. regius, A. japonicus, A. inodorus, A. coronus, A. thorpei, A. beccus, and A. hololepidotus) are provided. The composition and distinction of the genus Argyrosomus are briefly discussed.