Researchers discover two new species of moray eels in Indian waters
BHUBANESWAR: Two separate groups of researchers and zoologists have discovered new species of short brown moray eel and white-spotted moray eel from Andaman sea and deep waters of Arabian sea respectively.
The new species of short brown moray eel (Gymnothorax andamanensis) discovered in the South Andaman sea was caught using baited hand-lines in a sandy habitat at a depth of less than two metre.
The species has dorsal-fin before the gill opening, jaw pores with black rim, two branchial pores, three pre-dorsal vertebrae, 57 preanal vertebrae and smooth teeth, three large fang-like median intermaxillary teeth, biserial maxillary and uniserial vomerine teeth, and dentary teeth biserial with two teeth in each side in the second row of the dentary.
Officer-in-Charge of Gopalpur-based Estuarine Biology Regional Centre (EBRC) of Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) Anil Mohapatra said the new species is different compared to 10 short brown unpatterned moray eels found in the world and two from India.
“Two specimens of the species were collected and the moray eel was named ‘andamanensis’ with reference to Andaman Island from where it was discovered. With this, the number of short brown unpatterned moray species increased to three in the country and 11 in world,” he said.
Apart from Mohapatra, the team of zoologists who discovered the species comprised R Kiruba Sankar and J Praveenraj of Fisheries Science Division, ICAR’s Central Island Agricultural Research Institute, Port Blair and Swarup Ranjan Mohanty of EBRC.
Similarly, another group of researchers, including Mohapatra, also discovered a new species of white-spotted moray eel (Gymnothorax smithi) in the southeastern Arabian sea off Kerala coast. It is the first deep water moray eel found from 200 metre depth in Indian waters.
The new species is distinguishable from its congeners with a combination of characters like greyish brown body overlain with white spots of irregular shape, dorsal-fin origin anterior to gill opening, anus positioned slightly behind the mid-point of the body, serrated teeth and a unique vertebral count.
Mohapatra said with the new species, the number of Indian morays rose to 50. Three specimens of white-spotted moray eel were collected for diagnosis. Earlier, 49 species of moray eels from 10 genera were reported in the country, he said.
Others in the researchers’ group included KS Sumod of Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology (Kochi), VN Sanjeevan of Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, TG Kishor of Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute and KK Bineesh of Andaman and Nicobar Regional Centre of ZSI.
The species has been named Gymnothorax smithi in honour of David G Smith, an eminent eel expert of United States National Museum who has contributed significantly for research on Anguilliform fishes.