First Record of Rhynchorhamphus naga Collette, 1976 (Beloniformes: Hemiramphidae) From Kerala, India, South Eastern Arabian Sea

Abstract

Species, under the genus Rhynchorhamphus (Family: Hemiramphidae), are widely distributed marine groups of fishes. Among four species described from India, only two species, i.e., Rhynchorhamphus georgii and R. maabarica, are reported along the Indian coast. However, during the present study, a specimen collected from the Western Indian Ocean, Chetty harbour, Kerala, the south-west coast of India, has been identified as Rhynchorhamphus naga (Collette, 1976), based on morphology and molecular characters. The species is characterized by D-14; A-14; Pec-9; Pev-6; GR-50 and a prolonged beak (171.82% HL). The species has been reported from Western Central Pacific and several other countries like Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam considered to be endemic to that region. This finding reveals that the species has a wider distribution, as we recorded the species from Kerala, south-west coast of India along the Indian Ocean.