From the deep waters of Guimaras Island in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines and the North Macclesfield Bank in the South China Sea comes a discovery: Saurida weijeni sp. nov., a newly described species belonging to the family Synodontidae and genus Saurida.

The long-lived stony coral Porites is home to many generations of marine life, and is a major builder of coral reef ecosystems in the Indo-Pacific region.

For her master’s thesis under Dr. Lilibeth Salvador-Reyes, Shalice Susana evaluated 231 marine sponge extracts to find leads for marine drug development.

When this specimen was collected, it was mistaken for another species. It was only upon closer inspection of the museum material some years later that Dr. Machel Malay realized it was the discovery of a new species.

The genus Mimica was named for the ability of its type species, Mimica arnoldii, to mimic soft and hard corals.