A new species of deep-water snake eel, Ophichthus nigroventralis (Anguilliformes: Ophichthidae) from the Arabian Sea, southwest coast of India

A new species of deep-water snake eel, Ophichthus nigroventralis (Anguilliformes: Ophichthidae) from the Arabian Sea, southwest coast of India

A new species of deep-water snake eel, Ophichthus nigroventralis sp. nov. is described based on five specimens collected from deep-sea trawl landings at Kalamukku fish landing Centre, off Kochi, Arabian Sea, southwest coast of India. The new species is distinguished from its deep-water congeners by...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ichthyological research 2024, Vol.71 (2), p.268-275
Main Authors: Kodeeswaran, Paramasivam, Mohapatra, Anil, Kumar, Thipramalai Thangappan Pillai Ajith
Format: Article
Language:eng
Subjects:
Animal Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography
Aquatic reptiles
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Catadromous species
Colour
Congeners
Deep sea
Deep water
Ecology
Fins
Fish
Freshwater & Marine Ecology
Genetic analysis
Jaw
Landing statistics
Life Sciences
Marine fishes
Maxilla
New species
Ophichthus
Pigmentation
Snakes
Teeth
Vertebrae
Zoology
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A new species of deep-water snake eel, Ophichthus nigroventralis sp. nov. is described based on five specimens collected from deep-sea trawl landings at Kalamukku fish landing Centre, off Kochi, Arabian Sea, southwest coast of India. The new species is distinguished from its deep-water congeners by the following combination of characters viz., origin of dorsal fin slightly behind pectoral-fin tip; pectoral fin lanceolate, slightly shorter than upper jaw in length; head length 6.7–7.5 in TL; supraorbital (SO) pores 1 + 3; intermaxillary with a rosette of 10 pointed teeth; vomer with 6 anterior teeth in irregular biserial rows, 11 posterior teeth in a uniserial row; maxillary with 24–25 uniserial teeth; abdomen with numerous minute black pigmentation extends up to tail; pectoral fin whitish with brown base; vertebral count (pre-dorsal/pre-anal/total): 17–18/53–54/131–134. The genetic analysis reveals that the species Ophichthus urolophus is the closest congener for the new species with a genetic divergence of 4.2%.
ISSN:1341-8998
1616-3915