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The Japanese velvet dogfish Scymnodon ichiharaiYano and Tanaka 1984(Somniosidae) is a rare deep-sea shark hitherto known only from the northwest Pacific Ocean. This species is observed for the first time from the northern Indian Ocean. Two male specimens with total length (TL) of 760 mm, and 323 mm were caught by longline hook in the commercial motorized longline boat fishery at a depth of 400 m off Port Blair, Andaman Islands, India. We provide morphological descriptions of S. ichiharaifrom India in comparison with formerly identified specimens along with DNA barcodes from this region. The capture of this species in the northern Indian Ocean is a considerable biogeographic range extension and confirms the first record of S. ichiharaifrom the Indian EEZ.

Sillaginids possess similar taxonomic characters, which make the specific identification difficult, and many true species may be hidden in the synonymy of wide-ranging species. There are currently 36 valid species of sand whitings in the family Sillaginidae. Thirteen valid species are reported from Indian waters and six species are reported from the Arabian Sea. Investigations into the sillaginid diversity off the west coast of India revealed the presence of a species from the Arabian seawhich, on examination, proved to be very similar to the types of Sciaena malabarica. Based on conventional taxonomic analysis and DNA barcoding, we therefore raise Sillago malabarica(new combination) from the synonymy of S. sihamaand re-describe it here. Distinctive characteristics of the species include XI-XII spines in the first dorsal fin; I, 21–24 rays in the 2nd dorsal fin; 3–4/7–8 gill rakers on 1st gill arch, Head length 25.2–30.4; Snout length 39.4%–46.8% HL; post-orbital length 34%–37.5% HL, 34 total vertebrae (abdominal: 13, haemal: 4 and caudal: 17); single sharp spine on the opercular edge; swim-bladder with eight or nine lateral processes extending from entire lateral surface of main body of swim bladder; golden silvery body, dorsal and anal fins hyaline, with yellow tips and the absence of a mid-lateral streak or dark bands. Apart from re described species S. malabarica, original S. sihamais also recorded from Indian waters, in our studies.