No abstract

Scomber indicus, a new species of mackerel is described based on the specimens collected from the eastern Arabian Sea. The species is differentiated from its nearest congener Scomber australasicus, in having 29-32 gill rakers on lower limb of first gill arch, posteriormost part of hypohyal blunt, with presence of a pit between the hypohyal and the ceratohyal and also in having a posteriorly directed haemal spine which is deeply curved in the basal region. Genetic differentiation and divergence between the newly described species and the 4 valid species of the genus Scomber viz., S. scombrus, S. japonicus, S. australasicus and S. colias were compared using cytochrome c oxidase 1 and cytochrome b gene sequences. The new species was found closest to S. colias followed by S. japonicus with Kimura 2 parameter (K2P) values of 1.4 and 1.8% respectively. In the phylogenetic tree, sequences of Scomber indicus sp. nov. formed a distinct well separated clade with significant bootstrap values as compared to the sequences of S. scombrus, S. japonicus, S. australasicus and S. colias indicating their distinctiveness and separate species status.

No abstract

SummaryThe Indian oil sardine, Sardinella longiceps, is an important pelagic species in Indian waters, and shows divergent morphology while in sympatry. The reasons behind this divergent morphology were investigated using morphometric, genetic and nutritional analyses. Twenty-one morphometric characters (as percentage of standard length) and eight meristic characters were studied in the three variants to assess whether they are significantly diverged. Distinct clustering of morphotypes was evident in the principal component analysis on log-transformed ratios of morphological characters with PC1 and PC2, explaining 50.7% and 17

Deep sea snake fishes or band fishes belonging to the Family Cepolidae are widespread in eastern Atlantic, but rare in the central Indo-Pacific Ocean. A specimen of Acanthocepola sp. measuring 556 mm in total length (TL) weighing 139 g was collected from a multiday trawler, operated off the southwest coast of India and landed at Beypore Fisheries harbour, Calicut, Kerala on 9 th November 2017. The species was identified as A. indicus based on morphometric and meristic characteristics which was later confirmed by DNA barcoding.