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The age and growth of three endemic threatened guitarfish species were analysed using vertebrae of Pseudobatos horkelii, P. percellens and Zapteryx brevirostris. Edge and marginal-increment analyses were used to evaluate the periodicity of the formation of the band-pairs, suggesting deposition of one band-pair per year, from late winter to late spring. The von Bertalanffy growth model was used to describe the growth of these species with the following parameters, for pooled sexes: P. horkelii L ∞ = 126.93, k = 0.19 and t 0 = -1.51; P. percellens L ∞ = 109.31, k = 0.16 and t 0 = -1.78; Z. brevirostris L ∞ = 60.37, k = 0.24 and t 0 = -1.42. Our results are essential to understanding the resilience and vulnerability of these species to harvest, which can contribute to management and conservation actions of these species., (© 2019 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles.)

Morphometric measurements, meristic counts and DNA barcoding identified the presence of a biglip grunt Plectorhinchus macrolepis in the western Atlantic Ocean. As the species is endemic to the tropical eastern Atlantic Ocean and has not previously been reported in the western Atlantic Ocean, we discuss the possible means by which it might have dispersed to the western Atlantic Ocean. Even though this species is not considered established in Paranaguá Bay, we advocate monitoring of possible new individuals and other exotic fish species., (© 2019 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles.)

Among several marine pelagic species of the Brazilian coast, Scomber colias Gmelin, 1789 (Perciformes: Scombridae) stands out for having great economic importance, since it is widely used as a food resource and presents moderate vulnerability. Twenty specimens of S. colias were purchased from October 2015 to October 2016 from the coast of Santa Catarina, Brazil. In the present study, we recorded Hysterothylacium fabri (Rudolphi, 1819) (Deardorff and Overstreet, Proc Biol Soc Wash 93(4):1035-1079 1980) from the S. colias intestine using an integrative taxonomy approach, where morphological data are used in combination with partial sequences of the ITS gene, to validate the taxonomic status of the species and establish their relationships with other members of the genus. This species is being recorded for the first time in the South Atlantic and S. colias. The specimens of H. fabri collected in this study parasitizing S. colias presented morphology similar to the other specimens already registered parasitizing other hosts. The distance matrix generated showed that the partial sequences obtained in this study were more similar to sequences of Hysterothylacium sp. collected in China. In phylogenetic analysis, the two detected haplotypes of this study were grouped with H. fabri haplotypes deposited in GenBank in a monophyletic subclade.