Ophidion muraenolepis Gunther 1880
Authors/Creators
- 1. ICAR-National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources, Lucknow, India
- 2. Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
Description
Ophidion muraenolepis Günther, 1880
English vernacular name: blackedge cusk Fig. 1; Tables 1, 2, 3
Material examined.
OPHOMUR. 1–4 / NBFGR, 183.1–201.9 mm SL, Sakthikulangara Landing Centre, Kerala, southwest coast of India, Laccadive Sea, (8°32′15″N, 076°24′64″E), collector Teena Jayakumar T. K., in November 2023.
Description.
Morphometric and meristic data are summarized in Tables 1, 2.
D 140–178; A 126–153; P 22–28; V 2; C 9–10. Developed gill rakers 4; Vertebrae; 72–73. Body covered by small scales arranged in oblique rows without overlapping. Head scaleless, its length 8.99–10.11 in SL. Mouth large, with prominent supramaxilla and upper jaw larger than lower jaw. Maxilla elongated and reaching slightly beyond orbital region. Anterior nostril above upper lip. Weakly developed ethmoid spine and spineless preopercle. Snout rounded to slightly pointed, approximately equal to eye. Eye large, oval, with well-developed lens. Eye diameter 3.03–4.94 in HL, snout 3.57–4.67 in HL, and interorbital space 6.8–7.76 in HL. Nostrils widely separated, anterior situated near tip of snout, posterior in front of eye. Teeth arranged in villiform bands on jaws, with upper jaw featuring four transverse rows, outermost row being slightly enlarged. Patch of small villiform teeth present on vomer, followed by band of similar teeth on each palatine. Gill rakers 4 (on lower limb), 2 rudimentary gill rakers on upper limb. Tubercles present on gill rakers. Length of developed gill rakers 16.65–19.6 in HL. Body depth 6–7 in SL. Dorsal fin origin above posterior end of pectoral fin and its height more than anal fin height. Confluent dorsal and anal fin with caudal fin. Pelvic fin origin below anterior margin of eye, outer rays longer than inner rays. Pectoral fin pointed, pelvic fin origin below anterior margin of orbit to mid-eye, longest ray not reaching pectoral fin base.
Coloration.
Body is light brown dorsally with basket weave pattern scales. The ventral side of the body is pale. Dorsal and anal fins white, with a distal black margin; pelvic fin rays whitish and pectoral fins translucent. Caudal fin pale with black margin distally. Pale greyish brown eyes.
Geographical distribution.
The species was originally described from the Kai Islands, Arafura Sea, Indonesia (Günther 1880; Robins 1991). It has been subsequently reported from the eastern Indian Ocean and the western Pacific, from northwestern Australia east to the Hawaiian Islands (USA), north to the Ogasawara Islands (Japan), south to New Caledonia (Allen and Swainston 1988; Paxton et al. 1989; Allen 1997; Nakabo 2000; Randall and Lim 2000; Hutchins 2001; Mundy 2005; Randall 2007; Fricke et al. 2025) (Fig. 2). This study expands the known distribution range 5500 km to the west, to the Laccadive Sea, marking the first record of this species in Indian waters and the western Indian Ocean.
References for O. muraenolepis: Randall (2007), Nielsen (1997), and this study; O. smithi: Fricke et al. (2022), Ray and Mohapatra (2022), Augustina et al. (2025), and this study; O. asiro: Chen and Shao (1991); O. exul: Robins (1991).
Notes
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Linked records
Additional details
Identifiers
Biodiversity
- Collection code
- NBFGR
- Scientific name authorship
- Gunther
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Order
- Ophidiiformes
- Family
- Ophidiidae
- Genus
- Ophidion
- Species
- muraenolepis
- Taxon rank
- species
- Taxonomic concept label
- Ophidion muraenolepis Gunther, 1880 sec. Jayakumar, Fricke, Kumar & Sarkar, 2025
References
- Gunther ACLG (1880) Report on the shore fishes procured during the voyage of H. M. S. Challenger in the years 1873 - 1876. Report on the scientific results of the voyage of H. M. S. Challenger during the years 1873 - 76. Zoology. v. 1 (pt 6): 1 - 82, Pls. 1 - 32.
- Nielsen JG (1997) Deepwater ophidiiform fishes from off New Caledonia with six new species. In: B. Séret (Ed.) Résultats des Campagnes MUSORSTOM, v. 17. Mémoires du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris (N. S.) (Série A) Zoologie v. 174, Pp. 51–82.
- Randall JE (2007) Reef and shore fishes of the Hawaiian Islands. Sea Grant College Program, University of Hawai'i, Honolulu, 546 pp.
- Günther ACLG (1880) Report on the shore fishes procured during the voyage of H. M. S. Challenger in the years 1873–1876. Report on the scientific results of the voyage of H. M. S. Challenger during the years 1873–76. Zoology. v. 1 (pt 6): 1–82, Pls. 1–32.
- Robins CR (1991) Two new species of Ophidion (Pisces: Ophidiidae) from remote islands of the eastern Pacific. Contributions in Science 427: 1–11. https://doi.org/10.5962/p.208155
- Allen GR, Swainston R (1988) The marine fishes of north-western Australia. A field guide for anglers and divers. Western Australian Museum, Perth, 70 pp.
- Paxton JR, Hoese DF, Allen GR, Hanley JE (1989) Zoological catalogue of Australia. Volume 7. Pisces. Petromyzontidae to Carangidae. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra. v. 7: i – xii + 1–665.
- Allen GR (1997) Marine fishes of tropical Australia and south-east Asia. Western Australian Museum, Perth, 292 pp.
- Nakabo T (Ed.) (2000) [Fishes of Japan with pictorial keys to the species.] 2 nd edn. Tokai University Press. Tokyo, 866 pp. [In Japanese]
- Randall JE, Lim KKP (2000) A checklist of the fishes of the South China Sea. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology (Suppl. 8): 569–667.
- Hutchins JB (2001) Checklist of the fishes of Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum (Suppl. 63): 9–50. https://doi.org/10.18195/issn.0313-122x.63.2001.009-050
- Mundy BC (2005) Checklist of the fishes of the Hawaiian Archipelago. Bishop Museum Press, United States of America, 703 pp.
- Fricke R, Eschmeyer WN, Van der Laan R (2025) Eschmeyer's catalog of fishes: Genera, species, references. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA, USA. [Accessed 4 April 2025] http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatmain.asp
- Fricke R, Golani D, Appelbaum-Golani B (2022) The cusk eel Ophidion smithi (Ophidiiformes: Ophidiidae): new data and northernmost record from the Gulf of Aqaba. Integrative Systematics: Stuttgart Contributions to Natural History 5 (2): 103–107. https://doi.org/10.18476/2022.959496
- Ray D, Mohapatra A (2022) First Report of Subfamily Ophidiinae Rafinesque, 1810 and Genus Ophidion Linnaeus, 1758 (Ophidiiformes: Ophidiiae) from Bay of Bengal, Indian Coastal Water. National Academy Science Letters 45 (3): 223–226. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40009-022-01100-2
- Augustina XTA, Sreeram MP, Sukumaran S, Jose A, Sreekumar KM, Xavier B, George G (2025) Bridging the gap: Seven new distributional records from the west coast of India with phylogenetic reconstruction of the Indian deep-sea Ophidiiformes. Regional Studies in Marine Science 82: e 104016. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rsma.2025.104016
- Chen LJ, Shao KT (1991) A review of the families Ophidiidae and Bythitidae from Taiwan. Bulletin of the Institute of Zoology, Academia Sinica 30: 9–18.