Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Type: Article
Published: 2019-08-27
Page range: 189–196
Abstract views: 126
PDF downloaded: 4

A new short brown unpatterned moray eel Gymnothorax andamanensis (Muraenidae: Muraeninae) from Andaman waters, India

Estuarine Biology Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Gopalpur-on-Sea, Ganjam, Odisha, India-761002.
Division of Fisheries Science, ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute, Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands-744105
Division of Fisheries Science, ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute, Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands-744105
Estuarine Biology Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Gopalpur-on-Sea, Ganjam, Odisha, India-761002.
Anguilliformes South Andaman Pisces new species

Abstract

Gymnothorax andamanensis sp. nov., a new short brown moray eel, is described here on the basis of two specimens collected from Port Mout, Port Blair, South Andaman (11.659327°N; 92.696148°E), caught using baited hand-lines in a sandy habitat at a depth of less than 2 m. The species is characterized in having the dorsal-fin origin before the gill opening, pre-anal length 2.1–2.2, jaw pores with black rim, two branchial pores, predorsal vertebrae 3, preanal vertebrae 57 and total vertebrae 135–136, teeth smooth, three large fang-like median intermaxillary teeth, biserial maxillary and uniserial vomerine teeth, and dentary teeth biserial with two teeth in each side in the second row of the dentary. The new species is compared with all 10 short brown unpatterned moray eels known from the world and two from Indian waters.

References

  1. Böhlke, E.B. (1989) Methods and terminology. In: Böhlke, E.B. (Ed.), Fishes of the Western North Atlantic. Memoir of the Sears Foundation for Marine Research, 1 (Part 9), 1–7.

    Böhlke, E.B. (1997) Notes on the identity of elongate unpatterned Indo-Pacific morays, with description of a new species (Muraenidae, Subfamily Muraeninae). Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 147, 89–109.

    Böhlke, E.B. (2000) Notes on the identity of small, brown, unpatterned Indo-Pacific moray eels, with descriptions of three new species (Anguilliformes: Muraenidae). Pacific Science, 54 (4), 395–416.

    Böhlke, E.B. & Randall, J.E. (2000) A review of the moray eels (Angulliformes: Muraenidae) of the Hawaiian Islands, with descriptions of two new species. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 150, 203–278, Pls. I–IX.

    Loh, K.H., Shao, K.T. & Chen, H.M. (2011) Gymnothorax melanosomatus, a new moray eel (Teleostei: Anguilliformes: Muraenidae) from southeastern Taiwan. Zootaxa, 3134, 43–52.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3134.1.2

    Loh, K.H., Shao, K.T., Ho, H.C., Lim, P.E. & Chen, H.M. (2015) A new species of moray eel (Anguilliformes: Muraenidae) from Taiwan, with comments on related elongate unpatterned species. Zootaxa, 4060 (1), 30–40.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4060.1.5

    Mohapatra, A., Ray, D., Smith, D.G. & Mishra, S.S. (2016) A new species of elongate unpatterned moray eel of the genus Gymnothorax (Muraenidae: Muraeninae) from the Bay of Bengal. Zootaxa, 4150 (5), 591–598.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4150.5.6

    Mohapatra, A., Smith, D.G., Mohanty, S.R., Mishra, S.S. & Tudu, P.C. (2017) Gymnothorax visakhaensis sp. nov., a new species of elongate unpatterned moray eel (Muraenidae: Muraeninae) from the Indian coast. Zootaxa, 4300 (2), 279–286.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4300.2.9

    Mohapatra, A., Mohanty, S.R., Smith, D.G., Mishra, S.S. & Roy, S. (2018) Gymnothorax odishi sp.nov. (Muraenidae: Muraeninae), a short brown unpatterned moray eel from Bay of Bengal, India. Zootaxa, 4420 (1), 123–130.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4420.1.7

    Ray, D., Mohapatra, A. & Smith, D.G. (2015) A new species of short brown unpatterned moray eel of the genus Gymnothorax (Anguilliformes: Muraenidae) from the Bay of Bengal. Zootaxa, 4027 (1), 140–144.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4027.1.8

    Smith, D.G., Hibino, Y. & Ho, H-C. (2018) Two new elongate unpatterned moray eels from Taiwan and Vietnam, with notes on two congeners (Anguilliformes: Muraenidae). Zootaxa, 4054 (1), 32–42.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4454.1.5