SERIAL PUBLICATIONS FROM THE SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE FOR AQUATIC BIODIVERSITY

The Institute publishes original research on systematics, ecology, biology and conservation of fishes. Three series are produced at irregular intervals: the Special Publication series, the Bulletin series and the Monographs series.

Acceptance of manuscripts for publication is subject to the approval of reviewers from outside the Institute. Priority is given to papers by staff of the Institute, but manuscripts from outside the Institute will be considered if they are pertinent to the work of the Institute or use the Institute’s collections. Colour illustrations can be printed at the expense of the author. Page charges will be mandatory for all non-staff or non-associates of the Institute, these charges will be at the discretion of the Editor. Fifty free copies of the publication will be supplied to the author or senior author. Additional reprints may be ordered at cost price.

Publications of the Institute are available by subscription or in exchange for publications of other institutions. Lists of the Institute’s publications are available from the Publication Secretary at the address below. Past Bulletins are also available on the internet at http://www.bioline.org.br/fb, past Special Publications are at http://www.bioline.org.br/fs

INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

Manuscripts shorter than 30 pages will generally be published in the Special Publications series; longer papers will be considered for the Bulletin or Monographs series. Please follow the format of a recent Bulletin or Special Publication. The typescript must be double-spaced throughout with 25 mm margins all round; two hard copies must be submitted to the Editor. Each table or figure should be on a separate page and numbered with an Arabic numeral (not in sequence with text pages). All maps, graphs, charts, drawings and photographs should be numbered as figures. If two or more illustrations are grouped as one figure, they must be trimmed and spaced (but not mounted) as intended for final reproduction. Each part of a composite figure must be labelled with a capital letter; typewriter lettering is not acceptable. Illustrations larger than 21 x 30 cm should be avoided, or sent as a reduced bromide/line shot. Legends for figures should be on a separate page. A computer diskette/ CD, with the text in RTF, MSWord or Corel WordPerfect format, must be submitted with the hard copies. The inclusion of digital copies of all images and figures in acceptable formats (see web page) will expedite publication of the manuscript .

See extended Instructions to Authors at www.saiab.ru.ac.za/pubs.htm

STYLE OF THE HOUSE

Hyphens: Certain substantive compounds are hyphenated: gill-raker, soft-ray, type-species, type-locality, type-series, type-specimen. Other words often used together are not hyphenated unless they are used in adjectival expressions before a noun: anal fin / anal-fin rays; lateral line / lateral-line scales; gill arch / gill-arch filaments, etc.

Word usage: Although the following word pairs are often used interchangeably, we believe that consistent use of the first word as a noun and the second as an adjective will improve the precision of our writing: mucus / mucous; maxilla / maxillary; opercle / opercular, operculum / opercular. The operculum (= gill cover) comprises (usually) four separate bones: opercle, subopercle, preopercle and interopercle. The words preoperculum, suboperculum and interoperculum are unnecessary substitutes and not to be used for preopercle, subopercle and interopercle. The plural of operculum is opercula.

Decimal comma versus decimal point: Contrary to most journals published in South Africa and some European countries, we will not use a comma in place of a decimal point. Most computers do not read a comma as a decimal point. In addition, it is common in ichthyological papers to give sequences of measurements that include decimal numbers, with each measurement separated by a comma. If the comma is used to separate items in a series, as well as being used to indicate a decimal number, it will cause considerable confusion.

Fin formulae: Fin formulae will be designated as follows: D XII,10-12 indicates on continuous fin with 12 spines and 10-12 soft (segmented) rays; DX/I,10-12 indicates a fin divided to the base in front of the last spine; and D X+I,12 indicates two separate dorsal fins, the first with 10 spines and the second with 1 spine and 12 soft rays. If it is necessary to differentiate branched and unbranched soft-rays, lower-case Roman numerals will be used for unbranched rays and Arabic numerals for branched rays, e.g. D iii,S. Principal caudal-fin rays are defined as those that touch the hypural bones. The number of principal caudal rays is usually the number of branched rays plus two. If the principal caudal rays are in two separate groups, the number of rays in the dorsal group is given first: thus, “principal caudal rays 8+7” means that there are 15 principal caudal rays, with 8 rays in the dorsal group and 7 in the ventral group.

Abbreviations: Abbreviations normally end with a full stop: et al., e.g., etc., n.b., (note: these commonly used abbreviations of Latin words are not italicized). Dr (Doctor) and Mr (Mister) and compass directions (north, west, northwest, etc.) are abbreviated using capital letters without full stops: N, W, NW. We recommend the following abbreviations for ichthyological terms: SL - standard length, TL - total length, FL - fork length, GR - gill-rakers, LL - lateral line.

Mr Wouter Holleman, Editor
South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (formerly J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology),
Private Bag 1015, Grahamstown 6140, South Africa.

ISSN 1684-4130

Published by the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity Private Bag 1015, Grahamstown, South Africa, 6140

www.saiab.ru.ac.za