Gymnothorax mishrai Ray, Mohapatra & Smith, 2015, sp. nov.

Gymnothorax mishrai sp. nov.

Proposed common name: Bengal moray (Figures 1–3; Table 1)

Holotype. MARC /ZSI/F4210 (324 mm total length), Shankarpur, West Bengal, India (Trawling Site 21°06.55'N, 87°58.68'E), date of collection: 22 December 2014.

Diagnosis. This new species belongs to the small, brown unpatterned group of moray eels, with the following combination of characters: dorsal-fin origin before gill opening, jaw pores with brown rim, two branchial pores, total vertebrae 134 (MVF: 9-59-134), three median intermaxillary teeth, uniserial maxillary and vomerine teeth.

Description. A medium-sized moray with moderately elongate body, depth at gill opening 19.05 and at anus 24.9 in TL. Anus located slightly before mid-body, preanal length 2.05 in TL. Head 6.89 in TL; snout short and blunt, its length 6.52 in HL; jaws subequal, upper jaw 2.9 in HL. Eye large, almost midway between rictus and the snout tip, eye diameter 20.21 in HL; interorbital space 8.7 in HL (Table 1). Anterior nostril in a moderate tube, posterior nostril above anterior margin of eye. Branchial pores 2, located above and before gill opening. Dorsal-fin origin closer to gill opening than to rictus but before gill opening and just above 1st branchial pore. Gill opening at mid-side in a small diagonal slit. Teeth smooth, uniserial; outer intermaxillary teeth 18 (9 on each side), teeth 4 and 8 are smaller than others; median intermaxillary teeth 3, strong, curved, last two close together; maxillary teeth uniserial, 17 on each side, teeth 3 and 5 are smaller than others; vomerine teeth uniserial, 8; lower jaw with outer row of 24 teeth on each side and 1 inner tooth on each side near anterior end (Fig. 2). Head pores typical, supraorbital pores 3; infraorbital pores 4; mandibular pores 6; branchial pores 2 (Fig. 3).

Colour, when fresh: body brown; below posterior part of eye to rictus yellowish; fins dark; eye ring yellowish brown, jaw pores with brown rim. When preserved, body uniformly brown, eye ring whitish. Distribution. Presently known only from the West Bengal coast of India in the northern Bay of Bengal. Etymology. The species is named “ mishrai ” for Subhrendu Sekhar Mishra, Fish Section, Zoological Survey of India.