Oxyurichthys microlepis ( Bleeker, 1849 )

Saren, Saresh Chandra, Dutta, Sayani, Ruj, Rituparna, Das, Anindita & Pillai, Honey U. K., 2025, New distributional range of the grunting toadfish, Allenbatrachus grunniens (Linnaeus, 1758) and the maned goby, Oxyurichthys microlepis (Bleeker, 1849) from Goa, India, Records of the Zoological Survey of India 125 (2), pp. 187-191 : 189

Species - Oxyurichthys microlepis ( Bleeker, 1849) ( Fig 2b )

Description: The fish had a body covered in cycloid scales, with its head region fully scaled from the nape to the membranous crest, extending further into the preopercle. The opercle and cheek region were naked, and the prepelvic area was covered with 8-14 smallscale rows. The abdomen, trunk and caudal regions were scaled. Gill openings extended forward under the midopercular region. Most of the gill rakers present on the outer face of the first gill arch were triangular, whereas gill rakers on the inner face of the gill arch other than the first one were blade-like in their appearance. The tip of the tongue was rounded in shape, the upper lip was slightly indented in nature, and the upper jaw contained about 16–22 teeth present in a single row. Teeth in the lower jaw were present in a single band, with inner and outermost rows more prominent. For the two studied specimens, the morphometric measurements such as the Standard Length(from the tip of the snout to the base of the caudal fin) (71 mm and 89.5 mm), Head Length (from the tip of the snout to the operculum) (15.5 mm and 24 mm), Snout Length (from the tip of the snout to the eye) (4.6 mm and

5.3 mm), Depth at posterior preopercular margin (depth at the posterior portion of the preoperculum), Head Width at posterior preopercular margin (width of head at posterior part of preoperculum), Upper Jaw Length, Interorbital Length (length between two eyes), Body Depth at Anal Origin (depth of body at the origin of the anal origin), Caudal Peduncle Length (from the anal fin to the base of the caudal fin) and Caudal Peduncle Depth were measured. The Head Length was measured as 21.8–26.8% of the Standard Length. The Body Depth at anal origin was measured as 14.8–20% in Standard Length. The Caudal Peduncle Length was 9–14% in and the Caudal Peduncle Depth was 8.3–12% in Standard Length. The Depth at the posterior pre-opercular margin was 66.5–69.1% in Head Length, Head Width at posterior preopercular margin was 67.1–69.7% in Head Length, Upper Jaw Length was 41.9–46.7% in Head Length, Snout Length was 22.1–26.9% in Head Length and interorbital length was 9–12.5% in Head Length.Among the measured meristic characters, the first dorsal fin consisted of six soft spines, and the second dorsal fin had one soft spine and 12 soft rays. The pectoral fin had 20 and 22 soft rays, the pelvic fin contained five soft rays and the anal fin consisted of one spine and 13 soft rays. The lateral line scales were 41 and 46 in number.

Distribution: This particular species is found to be distributed along the Indo-West Pacific region from Pakistan and India to the east of Indonesia, north of Vietnam and Hainan, China, in the Queensland region ( Fricke et al., 2025). Along the Indian waters, it has been recorded from Chennai, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh along the east coast ( Ravi & Rajkumar, 2007; Suresh et al., 2018; Ray et al., 2022), Maharashtra and Karnataka along the west coast ( Barman et al., 2012; Braman et al., 2013; Parmar et al., 2015) and also from the Andaman Islands ( Pezold & Larson, 2015).

Figures

Fig. 2. Allenbatrachus grunniens (Linnaeus, 1758) (a) Panjim fish market (184.9 mm SL; ZSI F16830/2) and Oxyurichthys microlepis (Bleeker, 1849) (b) Quelossim (89.5 mm SL; F16551/2) specimens.