Gymnothorax smithi Sumod & Mohapatra & Sanjeevan & Kishor & Bineesh 2019, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Sumod, K. S.
name: Mohapatra, Anil
name: Sanjeevan, V. N.
name: Kishor, T. G.
name: Bineesh, K. K.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Actinopterygii
Anguilliformes
Muraenidae
Gymnothorax
Gymnothorax smithi

description: Gymnothorax smithi sp. nov.
Proposed common name: Indian white spotted moray eel
(Figs. 1–4, Table 1)
Holotype. CMLRE IO /SS/FIS/00452 (342 mm TL), 200 m depth off Kochi, India (09°59.935’N, 75°36.086’E) collected on-board FORV Sagar Sampada during August 2011, by HSDT (High Speed Demersal Trawl).
Paratypes. EBRC /ZSI/F 11228 (362 mm TL); ZSI/ANRC-22842 (615 mm TL), collected from Neendakara fish landing centre, Kollam, Kerala, during November, 2018.
Diagnosis. A moderate sized moray eel of the genus Gymnothorax with the following combination of characters: greyish brown colour overlain with small irregular white spots; anus slightly behind mid-point of body; head broad with short jaws; snout tip blunt and short; eyes small and closer to rictus than to snout tip; pointed and serrated teeth; vomerine teeth uniserial anteriorly, biserial centrally and uniserial posteriorly; 1–2 branchial pores; vertebral count 3–5 /57/130–132.
Description. Morphometric data of holotype (in mm): total length 342; pre-anal length 182; pre-dorsal length 34; head length 57; snout length 9.3; eye diameter 4.5; interorbital 7.3; interbranchial 13; gill opening 5.7; depth at gill 27.6; depth at dorsal-fin origin 32; depth at anus 15; upper jaw length 19.8, and lower jaw length 19.3.
A moderate sized eel with cylindrical to laterally compressed head and laterally compressed tail (Fig. 1). Dorsal and anal fins continuous with caudal fin. Dorsal fin commences before gill opening and its distance to snout tip is 8.4–10 times in TL. Anal fin-origin immediately behind anus. Anus located slightly behind mid-body, pre-anal distance is 1.83–1.88 in TL. Head broad and gently sloping towards snout, 5.5–6.0 in TL. Snout blunt and short, 6.1–6.9 in HL. Upper jaw and lower jaw are almost equal. All teeth concealed when mouth closed. Tongue well attached the floor of mouth. Eyes small, covered by membrane and closer to snout tip than rictus, eye diameter 12.7–13.1 in HL. Anterior nostril tubular at lateral side of tip of snout and posterior nostril above anterior margin of eye. Gill opening a diagonal slit at mid-body level.
Head pores (Fig. 2) small but discernable. Two branchial pores located below dorsal-fin origin well before gill opening and closer to dorsal-fin origin than gill opening in holotype (both paratypes have a single branchial pore); three supra-orbital pores, first (ethmoid) pore at tip of snout above lip, second above base of anterior nostril, third between anterior and posterior nostrils; four infraorbital pores, first pore just behind base of anterior nostril, second between anterior nostril and anterior margin of eye, third below anterior margin of eye, and fourth after posterior margin of eye; six mandibular pores, first five before rictus and fifth below rictus.
Teeth (Fig. 3) in jaws serrated and uniserial except in vomer and anterior dentary. Maxillary and mandibular teeth conical and sharp, vomerine teeth blunt and smaller. Intermaxillary teeth 6 on both sides, followed by 9 maxillary teeth on both sides, median intermaxillary teeth 2, inner maxillary teeth 1 on each side, just before vomerine teeth. Vomer with 4 uniserial teeth anteriorly, followed by 4 biserial teeth and 3 uniserial teeth posteriorly. Mandibular teeth 17 on each side, anterior 4 teeth a little enlarged with 4 smaller outer teeth on each side, remaining teeth decreasing in size posteriorly.
Colour in formalin. Body greyish brown overlain with white spots of irregular shape. Snout, lower jaw and ventral portion of body pale. The white spots comparatively smaller in head region than body (Fig. 4). In enlarged view under microscope, there are small brown pigmentation spots inside the white spots. Margin of gill opening with similar brown pigmentation. Spots very small and more closely spaced in head region and becoming large and more widely spaced posteriorly, tail end is almost devoid of spots with dusky greyish brown colour. Dorsal fin greyish brown overlain with white spots similar to those on body. Anal fin dusky greyish brown with few isolated spots. Caudal fin ends with small white margin, visible only on close inspection. Mouth white in colour overlain with grey patches.
Distribution. Presently known only from three type specimens collected by demersal trawl off Kerala coast, southeastern Arabian Sea, India at about 200 m depth (on the basis of holotype, not known for paratypes).
Etymology. We are pleased to name this species as Gymnothorax smithi in honor of David G. Smith, United States National Museum, an eminent eel expert who has contributed significantly to the knowledge and understanding of Anguilliform fishes.
description: Published as part of Sumod, K. S., Mohapatra, Anil, Sanjeevan, V. N., Kishor, T. G. & Bineesh, K. K., 2019, A new species of white-spotted moray eel, Gymnothorax smithi (Muraenidae: Muraeninae) from deep waters of Arabian Sea, India, pp. 359-366 in Zootaxa 4652 (2) on pages 360-362, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4652.2.8, http://zenodo.org/record/3363862