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

Abstract

AbstractA new species of the ophichthid eel of the family Ophichthidae is described based on five specimens collected from the Mudasalodai fish landing center, off Cuddalore coast, southeast coast of India, Bay of Bengal. Ophichthus naevius sp. nov. is distinguished from its congeners by having a unique color pattern: dorsal body with numerous dense dark spots or patches, ventral body pale yellowish green, dorsal‐fin origin just before pectoral‐fin tip, vertebral formula: 12–14/52–53/134–138, and teeth on jaw uniserial and pointed. The study also reports the range extension and molecular evidence of Ophichthus chilkensis from South India. Molecular analyses were performed for both species, and their phylogenetic relationship suggests that the new species exhibits 10.2% genetic divergence with its congener Ophichthus sangjuensis, followed by Ophichthus brevicaudatus (10.4%), and Ophichthus sp. 1 (11.8%) also forms the closest clade in both Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood (ML) tree. Similarly, according to the topology of the ML tree, the species O. chilkensis forms a clade with Ophichthus sp. 5, Ophichthus remiger, Ophichthus frontalis, Ophichthus sp. 6, and Ophichthus rex, suggesting that it would be the genetically closest congener.