Gymnothorax andamanensis Mohapatra & Kiruba-Sankar & Praveenraj & Mohanty 2019, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Mohapatra, Anil
name: Kiruba-Sankar, R.
name: Praveenraj, J.
name: Mohanty, Swarup Ranjan
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Actinopterygii
Anguilliformes
Muraenidae
Gymnothorax
Gymnothorax andamanensis

description: Gymnothorax andamanensis sp. nov.
Proposed common name: Andaman brown moray
(Figures 1–4 A, Table 1)
Holotype. EBRC /ZSI F11227 [325 mm total length (TL)], Port Mout, Port Blair, South Andaman (11.659327°N; 92.696148°E]: 18 March 2019.
Paratypes. CIARI /MF-05. [464 mm TL), date and place of collection: same as holotype.
Diagnosis. This new species of moray eel belongs to the small, brown unpatterned group with the combination following of characters: dorsal-fin origin before gill opening, pre-anal length 2.1–2.2, jaw pores with black rim, two branchial pores, predorsal vertebrae 3, preanal vertebrae 57 and total vertebrae 135–136, teeth smooth, three large fang-like median intermaxillary teeth, biserial maxillary and uniserial vomerine teeth, and dentary teeth biserial, with two teeth on each side in the second row of the dentary.
Description. A medium-sized, uniform brown moray with moderately elongate body, depth at gill opening 15.0–17.1 and at anus 16.0– 19.1 in TL; preanal length 2.1–2.2 in TL. Head small, 8.1 in TL; snout blunt, its length 4.4 in HL; jaws almost equal 2.2–2.4 in HL. Eye diameter of 6.7–7.6 in HL and located closure to rictus than the snout tip; interorbital space 6.7–8.8 in HL (Table 1). Anterior nostril tubular touching the tip of the snout, posterior nostril above the anterior margin of eye. Dorsal-fin origin before gill opening and closer to rictus than to gill opening. Pre-dorsal length 9.9–10.8 in total length. The dorsal fin origin is well before the 1st branchial pore. Anal fin starts from the anus. Both dorsal and anal fins high. Gill in a small diagonal slit located behind the dorsal fin origin and second branchial pore (Fig. 2). Teeth smooth, not serrated; intermaxillary teeth 11–12 on each side with alternate small and large teeth as shown in Fig. 3; 3 strong, curved median intermaxillary teeth placed almost equidistance from each other; maxillary teeth biserial, 19–20 on each side of outer row and 3 in each side of inner row; vomerine teeth uniserial with 9–10 teeth; lower jaw teeth with outer row of 26–28 teeth on each side and 2 inner teeth on each side near anterior end (Fig. 3). Head pores typical, supraorbital pores 3; infraorbital pores 4; mandibular pores 6; branchial pores 2, located above and before gill opening (Fig. 2). All head pores with black rim. Predorsal vertebrae 3, preanal vertebrae 57 and total vertebrae 135–136.
Colour when fresh: body dark brown dorsally and slightly pale brown ventrally; (Figs. 1 & 4), both dorsal and anal fins body colour; eye ring whitish, jaw pores with black rim. When preserved, body uniformly brown, eye ring white.
Distribution. Presently known only from the South Andaman, India.
Etymology. The species is named “ andamanensis ” with reference to the Island from where it is collected.
description: Published as part of Mohapatra, Anil, Kiruba-Sankar, R., Praveenraj, J. & Mohanty, Swarup Ranjan, 2019, A new short brown unpatterned moray eel Gymnothorax andamanensis (Muraenidae: Muraeninae) from Andaman waters, India, pp. 189-196 in Zootaxa 4661 (1) on pages 190-191, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4661.1.11, http://zenodo.org/record/3378470