AbstractWe determined 32 complete mitochondrial control region (D-loop region) sequences of Coilia species, including C. nasus, C. grayii, C. mystus, C. brachygnathus and the so-called C. nasus taihuensis, to investigate the validity of disputed species C. brachygnathus and C. nasus taihuensis, and to discuss the phylogenetic relationships of Coilia in China. Engraulis japonicus and E. ringens were used as outgroups. Sequences length of C. grayii, C. mystus, C. nasus, C. brachygnathus and C. nasus taihuensis were 1,208 bp, 1,279–1,361 bp, 1,252–1,290 bp, 1,214–1,252 bp, and 1,252–1,442 bp, respectively. Except for C. grayii, other Coilia species have length variations among individuals. The average K 2-P distances among C. brachygnathus, C. nasus and C. nasus taihuensis ranged from 0.011 to 0.020, while the average distances between these three species and the species of C. grayii, C. mystus and outgroups ranged from 0.051 to 0.349, thus showing significant difference between the former and latter species. The phylogenetic trees es-timated by maximum parsimony (MP) and neighbor-joining (NJ) methods indicated that the individuals of C. nasus, C. nasus taihuensis and C. brachygnathus failed to form monophyletic clades. These results revealed that C. nasus taihuensis and C. brachygnathus should be considered the same species and C. nasus is a valid species name. The phylogenetic result also suggests that C. mystus is the most basal among the three valid species of Coilia, while C. grayii and C. mystus are more derived and are sister groups. We presume that C. mystus is the earliest descendant of Coilia ancestor which dispersed from the original center to the northwest Pacific Ocean. C. nasus and C. grayii are the species diverged from C. mystus adapted to cold and warm en-vironment, respectively.