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Issue: Vol. 5636 No. 3: 19 May 2025
Type: Article
Published: 2025-05-19
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5636.3.9
Page range: 551-565
Abstract views: 201
PDF downloaded: 4

Rediscovery and phylogenetic position of Moringua hodgarti Chaudhuri, 1913 (Synbranchiformes: Synbranchidae) from the Siang Valley of Arunachal Pradesh, India

6/1/1A Swinhoe Street; Ballygunge. Kolkata 700019; West Bengal; India
TC7/780; Maruthamkuzhy Jn.; Trivandrum 695030; Kerala; India
SM Sehgal Foundation Center for Biodiversity and Conservation; Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE); Royal Enclave; Srirampura; Bangalore; Karnataka 560064; India
SM Sehgal Foundation Center for Biodiversity and Conservation; Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE); Royal Enclave; Srirampura; Bangalore; Karnataka 560064; India; Manipal Academy for Higher Education; Madhav Nagar; Manipal; 576 104; Karnataka India
Pisces Ophichthys Northeast India Biodiversity Abor Expedition Conservation

Abstract

For more than a century, there have been no records of Moringua hodgarti, first collected during the Abor Expedition of 1911–1912, and subsequently described by Chaudhuri in 1913 as a species of moringuid eel. We report the rediscovery of this species after 110 years, and provide a re-description based on freshly collected specimens. Morphology and molecular analysis confirm that M. hodgarti is a species of synbranchid eel of the genus Ophichthys as previously hypothesized. Ophichthys hodgarti can be distinguished from its congeners by the presence of paired, separate gill openings, extent of scalation anterior to the vent, body colouration and vertebral counts. Information on its distribution and ecology is also provided. This species is known only from the Siang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh, India.

 

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How to Cite

Mukherjee, N., Kumar, R.G., Narayanan, S. & N.a, A. (2025) Rediscovery and phylogenetic position of Moringua hodgarti Chaudhuri, 1913 (Synbranchiformes: Synbranchidae) from the Siang Valley of Arunachal Pradesh, India. Zootaxa, 5636 (3), 551–565. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5636.3.9