Abstract
A new species of snake eel, Ophichthus chennaiensis sp. nov. (Anguilliformes: Ophichthidae: Ophichthinae), is described on the basis of a specimen collected from dumped fish disposed of by bottom trawlers at Kasimedu fishing harbour, Chennai. Ophichthus chennaiensis sp. nov is distinguished from its congeners by having its dorsal-fin origin one pectoral-fin length behind the pectoral-fin tip, preanal length 2.4 in TL, biserial maxillary, uniserial mandibular teeth, biserial to uniserial vomerine teeth, and its vertebrae (predorsal 19, preanal 53, and total vertebrae 154).
References
Böhlke, E.B. (1982) Vertebral formulae of type specimens of eels (Pisces: Anguilliformes). Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 134, 31–49.
Fricke, R., Eschmeyer, W.N. & Fong, J.D. (2020) Species by Family/Subfamily. Electronic Version. Available from: http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/SpeciesByFamily.asp (accessed 3 June 2020)
McCosker, J.E., Böhlke, E.B. & Böhlke, J.E. (1989) Family Ophichthidae. In: Böhlke, E.B. (Ed.), Fishes of the Western North Atlantic. Memoirs of the Sears Foundation for Marine Research, 1 (Part 9), pp. 254–412.
Mishra, S.S., Mohapatra, A., Ray, D., Mohanty, S.R. & Tudu, P.C. (2019) Ophichthus chilkensis Chaudhuri, 1916 (Anguilliformes: Ophichthidae)—resurrection as a valid species from India, with re-description. Zootaxa, 4586 (1), 194–200,
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4586.1.13
Mohapatra, A., Ray, D., Mohanty, S.R. & Mishra, S.S. (2018) Ophichthus johnmccoskeri sp. nov. (Anguilliformes: Ophichthidae): a new snake eel from Indian waters, Bay of Bengal. Zootaxa, 4462 (2), 251–256.
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4462.2.7
Mohapatra, A., Ray, D., Mohanty, S.R. & Mishra, S.S. (2019) First report of Ophichthus machidai (Actinopterygii: Anguilliformes: Oophichthidae) from the Indian Ocean. Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria, 49 (1), 49–51.
https://doi.org/10.3750/AIEP/02523
Mohapatra, A., Ray, D., Mohanty, S.R., Mishra, S.S. (2020) Ophichthus kailashchandrai sp. nov. (Anguilliformes: Ophichthidae): a new species of snake eel from Indian waters, Bay of Bengal. Zootaxa, 4728 (2), 283–288.
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4728.2.8
Ray, D., Mohapatra, A., Biswas, S., Satpathy, K.K. & Mishra, S.S. (2015) First record of the Evermann’s snake eel, Ophichthus lithinus (Actinopterygii: Anguilliformes: Ophichthidae), from northern Indian Ocean. Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria, 45 (1), 89–93.
https://doi.org/10.3750/AIP2015.45.1.10
Smith, D.G. & McCosker, J.E. (1999) Ophichthidae, Snake eels, worm eels. In: Carpenter, K.E. & Niem, V.H. (Eds.), FAO species identification guide for fishery purposes. The living marine resources of theWestern Central Pacific. Vol. 3. Batoid fishes, chimaeras and bony fishes. Part 1. Elopidae to Linophrynidae. FAO, Rome, pp. 1662–1669.
Sumod, K.S., Hibino, Y., Manjabrayakath, H. & Sanjeevan, V.N. (2019) Description of a new species of deep-water snake eel, Ophichthus mccoskeri (Ophichthidae: Ophichthinae) from Andaman Sea, India. Zootaxa, 4686 (1), 112–118.
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4686.1.5
Talwar, P.K. & Kacker, R.K. (1984) Commercial Sea Fishes of India. Handbook 4. Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, 997 pp.