Albula gilberti is distinguished from A. esuncula by the following characters: the pelvic-fin tip reach the posterior edge of the anus (vs. tip not surpassing the anterior edge); pelvic-fin rays varies from 9 to 12 (vs. always 10); lateral-line scale counts 68-73 (vs. 68-71); and, gill rakers on first gill arch are higher, 4-10 (vs. 3-8). Since only four or nine specimens were examined for A. esuncula, the diagnostic value of the meristic differences between both species and the position of the pelvic-fin tip should not be considered validated yet and be used with caution. Albula gilberti also differs from A. esuncula by diagnostic nucleotide substitutions at 17 different sites in the 544 bp cytb gene segment; the cytb segment corresponds to nucleotide positions 14502-15045 in the complete mitochondrial genome of Albula glossodonta [GenBank accession no. AP002973; phylogenetic evidence suggests that the genome sequenced was actually from A. argentea (= A. forsteri) and not A. glossodonta (Pfeiler et al., 2006)] (Ref. 88068).