melinopterus, Mugil Valenciennes [A.] (ex Quoy & Gaimard) in Cuvier & Valenciennes 1836:146, Pl. 314 [Histoire naturelle des poissons v. 11; ref. 1005] Vanikoro Island, Santa Cruz Islands, southwestern Pacific. Holotype (unique): MNHN A-3669 (poor condition). Type catalog: Blanc & Hureau 1972:696 [ref. 21541]. Based on manuscript description and illustration by Quoy & Gaimard, and an additional (poor) specimen. •Valid as Ellochelon melinoptera (Valenciennes 1836) -- (Myers 1999:70 [ref. 23965]). •Synonym of Liza macrolepis (Smith 1846) -- (Harrison & Senou 1999:2088 [ref. 24780], Manilo & Bogorodsky 2003:S112 [ref. 27377]). •Valid as Liza melinoptera (Valenciennes 1836) -- (Smith & Smith 1986:717 [ref. 5717], Allen & Coates 1990:91 [ref. 25561], Allen 1991:146 [ref. 21090], Talwar & Jhingran 1991:892 [ref. 20764], Liang in Pan et al. 1991:353 [ref. 23876], Allen et al. 1992:302 [ref. 21400], Kottelat et al. 1993:125 [ref. 23448], Krishnan & Mishra 1993:230 [ref. 24016], Zhu 1995:167 [ref. 25213], Senou 1997:51 [ref. 22776], Thomson 1997:527 [ref. 23428], Larson & Williams 1997:364 [ref. 23967], Fricke 1999:359 [ref. 24106], Harrison & Senou 1999:2089 [ref. 24780], Randall & Earle 2000:14 [ref. 25806], Sakai et al. 2001:103 [ref. 25693], Randall et al. 2004:8 [ref. 27624], Hoese & Bray 2006:679 [ref. 29000], Ho & Shao 2011:38 [ref. 31432], Larson et al. 2013:56 [ref. 32988], Kottelat 2013:277 [ref. 32989], Shen & Durand 2016:77 [ref. 35591]). •Synonym of Liza luciae (Penrith & Penrith 1967) -- (Durand & Whitfield 2016:110 [ref. 35590] with authors as Penrith & Penrith 1967). •Valid as Planiliza melinoptera (Valenciennes 1836) -- (Delrieu-Trottin et al. 2015:6 [ref. 33988] as melinopterus, Durand & Borsa 2015:268 [ref. 34115], Durand 2016:34 [ref. 35589], Zajonz et al. 2019:65 [ref. 36871], Yoshigou 2022:17 [ref. 39640] as cf. melinoptera, Jamandre 2023:171 [ref. 40455]). •Valid as Planiliza melinopterus (Valenciennes 1836) -- (Hasan et al. 2020:143 [ref. 37945], Zajonz et al. 2022:56 [ref. 40522]). •Valid as Chelon melinopterus (Valenciennes 1836) -- (Nakabo 2000:540 [ref. 25086], Senou in Randall & Lim 2000:625 [ref. 25122], Nakabo 2002:540 [ref. 26001], Kimura et al. in Kimura & Matsuura 2003:22 [ref. 27510], Randall 2005:75 [ref. 28239], Fricke et al. 2009:29 [ref. 30213], Fricke et al. 2011:369 [ref. 31242], Fricke et al. 2014:36 [ref. 33932], Psomadakis et al. 2015:294 [ref. 34104], Trnski 2015:943 [ref. 34273], Koeda et al. 2016:12 [ref. 35333], Motomura et al. 2017:61 [ref. 35490], Fricke et al. 2018:93 [ref. 35805], Matsunuma in Kimura et al. 2018:222 [ref. 36460], Suresh et al. 2018:143 [ref. 36495], Arndt & Fricke 2019:21 [ref. 36883], Psomadakis et al. 2020:516 [ref. 37272], Ghasamzadeh 2022:314 [ref. 39712], Fricke et al. 2024:78 [ref. 41255]). Current status: Valid as Chelon melinopterus (Valenciennes 1836). Mugilidae. Distribution: Indo-West Pacific: KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), East Africa, Socotra (Yemen), Madagascar and western Mascarenes (La Réunion) east to Philipines and Marquesas Islands (French Polynesia), north to southern Japan, south to northern Australia, New Caledonia and Tonga. Habitat: freshwater, brackish, marine.