Ophichthus cephalozona Bleeker, 1864

Mohanty, Swarup Ranjan, Murmu, Laxman Kumar, Roy, Sanmitra & Mohapatra, Anil, 2021, Short Communication First documentation of an Ophichthid eel, Ophichthus cephalozona Bleeker, 1864 (Anguilliformes: Ophichthidae) from Odisha Coast, Records of the Zoological Survey of India 121 (2), pp. 303-305 : 303-304

Ophichthus cephalozona Bleeker, 1864 ( Figure 1 ) Common name: Dark-shouldered snake eel

1865. Ophichthus cephalozona Bleeker , Atlas Ichth. 4: 49, pl. 12

Materials examined: EBRC /ZSI/F 12236, 1 ex., 535 mm total length (TL), Paradip fish landing centre, Jagatsinghpur , Odisha, 09 th March 2020 .

First documentation of an Ophichthid eel, Ophichthus cephalozona ...

Diagnostic characters: Body cylindrical and quite elongated, its depth at gill opening 36.9 and depth at anus 33.4 in TL. Anus present in middle of the body, where pre-anal and tail length 2.0 in TL. Tail pointed and laterally slightly compressed posteriorly. Dorsal fin originates above posterior end of the pectoral fin and pre-dorsal length 9.7 in TL. Head short and narrow towards tip of the snout, its length 10.9 in TL. Eye moderate and situated towards rictus, its length 12.3 in head length (HL). Interorbital space 7.0; snout blunt and 6.1 in HL; upper jaw 3.5 and lower jaw 4.1 in HL. Pectoral fin rounded, its length 3.9 and its base length 9.6 in HL. Gill opens at ventrolateral, its length 6.5 in HL. A minute barbel presents in-between the posterior and anterior nostril. Anterior nostrils tube-like; posterior nostrils open into the mouth with a covering flap.

Teeth small and pointed; maxillary and vomerine teeth uniserial; intermaxillary plate having 6 small teeth patch; mandibular teeth uniserial posteriorly and anteriorly only two extra teeth present just in the beginning. Pores small with white margin. Head with 5 supraorbital, 2+4 infraorbital, 6 mandibular, 3 branchial pores; 9 prepectoral lateral line pores, 3 supratemporal and one frontal pore. The collected specimen has 12 pre-dorsal vertebrae, 67 pre-anal vertebrae and 155 total vertebrae.

Colour: Snout and chin dark brown followed by a white band behind it and a large brown saddle ending with a pale band at gill opening; rest of the body uniformly brown.

Distribution: Ohichthus cephalozona has been reported from Myanmar, east to Marshalls, Society and Fiji Islands, south to Australia (Queenland) and north to Japan ( McCosker and Psomadakis, 2018). In India, the species has been reported from Maharashtra ( Bal and Mohmed, 1957), Puducherry ( Mishra and Krishnan, 2003); Tamil Nadu ( Barman et al., 2011) and West Bengal ( Ray et al., 2015). The current paper documents the species for the first time from Odisha coast.

Figures

Figure 1. Ophichthus cephalozona (553 mm TL), collected from Odisha coast.