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]). Current status: Valid as Chelon melinopterus (Valenciennes 1836). Mugilidae. Distribution: Indo-West Pacific: KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), East Africa, Socotra (Yemen) and Madagascar east to Philipines and Marquesas Islands (French Polynesia), north to southern Japan, south to northern Australia, New Caledonia and Tonga. Habitat: freshwater, brackish, marine.