A new species of the congrid eel genus Ariosoma (Anguilliformes: Congridae) from the south‐west coast of India

Abstract

A new congrid eel species, Ariosoma maurostigma sp. nov., is described on the basis of 24 specimens collected from the deep‐sea trawl by‐catch, Kalamukku Fishing Harbour, off Kerala, Arabian Sea. The new species differs from all other congeners in having the following combination of characters: dark mark or spot on the posterodorsal margin of the eyes; dorsal surface of head with two faint darkish bands across the anterior and posterior margin of the eye; origin of the dorsal fin before the pectoral‐fin base; short vomerine teeth patch, ST pores 3, 1 median pore and 1 lateral pore on each side just behind the median pore; preanal vertebrae 47–51; precaudal vertebrae 54–57; total vertebrae 136–142; total pores 129–134. The phylogenetic analysis reveals that the new species is closely related to Ariosoma melanospilos and Ariosoma anale, with divergences of 13.8% and 14.9%, respectively.

Ariosoma indicum sp. nov., a new species of congrid eel (Anguilliformes: Congridae: Bathymyrinae) from the Indian waters

“…The GenBank accession numbers for the sequences generated in the present study are OM509709 and OM509710. The new species A. indicum is closely related to Ariosoma maurostigma Kodeeswaran et al ., 2022 with genetic divergence value of 15.0%, followed by Ariosoma melanospilos Kodeeswaran et al ., 2021 with 15.8%, Ariosoma selenops Reid, 1934 with 17.9%, Ariosoma anale (Poey, 1860) with 18.4% and Ariosoma meeki (Jordan & Snyder, 1900) with 21.4%. Ariosoma indicum exhibits maximum genetic distance with Ariosoma majus (Asano, 1958) by the divergence value of 28.9% followed by Ariosoma shiroanago (Asano, 1958), Ariosoma scheelei (Strömman, 1896), Ariosoma anago (Temminck & Schlegel, 1846) and Ariosoma balearicum (Delaroche, 1809) with the K2P distance value of 27.4%, 27.3%, 26.8% and 26.5%, respectively (Figure 5).…”

“…The molecular analysis was performed on the basis of methods published in Kodeeswaran et al (2021Kodeeswaran et al ( , 2022, with additional sequences generated for the new species described herein. Sequences were edited and aligned using software BioEdit version 5.0.9 (Hall, 1999) using clustalW Multiple alignment algorithm (Thompson et al, 2003) and deposited in the GenBank.…”

“…Bathymyrinae with 56 species, and, Congrinae and Heterocongrinae with 130 and 36 species, respectively (Fricke et al ., 2022). The genus Ariosoma Swainson, 1838, of the sub‐family Bathymyrinae contains 34 nominal species distributed throughout temperate and tropical waters (Fricke et al ., 2022) with six species described or documented from the coastal waters of India (Kodeeswaran et al ., 2022). Among this, Ariosoma gnanadossi Talwar & Mukherjee, 1977 was the first species to be described from India based on the collection of a specimen at the depth of 250 m off Madras, Bay of Bengal.…”

A new snake eel species of the genus Ophichthus (Anguilliformes: Ophichthidae) from the southeast coast of India, Bay of Bengal, with the taxonomic account of Ophichthus chilkensis

“…Universal primers FishF1 and FishR1 (Ward et al, 2005) were used for mitochondrial COI gene amplification and PCR product sequencing. Thermal cycles in PCR protocol were performed with an initial denaturation at 95°C for 5 min, denaturation at 94°C for 30 s, annealing at 52°C for 40 s, extension at 72°C for 1 min (35 cycles), and final extension at 72°C for 10 min (Kodeeswaran et al, 2022). PCR products were sequenced in ABI 3730XL sequencers with BigDye V3.1 terminator technology in Eurofins Labs Pvt., Ltd., Bangalore, Karnataka, India.…”

A new species of the congrid eel genus Ariosoma (Teleostei: Anguilliformes: Congridae) from the Southeast coast of India, Bay of Bengal

“…Hitherto, eight species of the genus Ariosoma have been described or documented from the Indian waters, viz. Ariosoma albimaculatum Kodeeswaran et al ., 2023, Ariosoma anago (Temminck and Schlegel, 1846) (Mishra and Krishnan, 2003), Ariosoma bengalense Ray et al ., 2022, Ariosoma gnanadossi Talwar and Mukherjee, 1977, Ariosoma indicum Kodeeswaran et al ., 2022b, Ariosoma majus (Asano, 1958) (Roy et al ., 2021), Ariosoma maurostigma Kodeeswaran et al ., 2022a, Ariosoma melanospilos Kodeeswaran et al ., 2021. Among them, A. albimaculatum , A. bengalense , A .…”