Abstract
A new species of finless ophichthid eel, Apterichtus nanjilnaduensis is described based on six specimens collected from the Arabian Sea. The new species is diagnosed by the following combination of characters: head length 11.0–13.5, tail length 1.8–2.0, body depth 55.4–86.7 in total length; anterior margin of eye behind tip of lower jaw; 3 preopercular and 3 supratemporal pores; teeth conical, uniserial on jaw; 1 vomerine tooth (one specimen with 2); body golden reddish to pink, head darker than body with melanophores, ventral body pale white from anus to just before tail tip, reddish at tip; and mean vertebral formula 61-141. This is the first record of the genus Apterichtus from the Indian waters.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), New Delhi, India and the Director, CMLRE, Kochi for their constant encouragement and support, and for providing necessary facilities onboard FORV Sagar Sampada; to the Captain, Chief Engineer, Fishing Master, crew members, and scientific participants of FORV Sagar Sampada Cruise no. 404 for their support during the sample collections. The first author thanks Ahamed Rasheeq for providing specimens from the landing centre and Jian-Fu Huang, National Taiwan Ocean University, for suggestions regarding the species identity. We are thankful to the two anonymous reviewers, for their helpful and constructive comments that greatly helped improve an earlier version of this manuscript. The authors express sincere gratitude to Dr. Rajeev Raghavan, Assistant Professor, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, and Benjamin Frable, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, for insightful linguistic modifications, which significantly raised the manuscript's standard. This is the CMLRE contribution No. 194.
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Kodeeswaran, P., Ravinesh, R., Hibino, Y. et al. A new species of finless ophichthid eel genus Apterichtus (Anguilliformes: Ophichthidae) from the Arabian Sea. Ichthyol Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-024-01005-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-024-01005-8