Ophichthus chilkensis Chaudhuri, 1916 (Anguilliformes: Ophichthidae)—resurrection as a valid species from India, with re-description

Abstract

Ophichthus chilkensis Chaudhuri, 1916 has long been treated as a synonym of Pisodonophis cancrivorus (Richardson, 1848). O. chilkensis is hereby re-described on the basis of holotype from Chilika Lake, Odisha as well as ten fresh specimens from Talsari, Balasore district, Odisha and Digha, West Bengal. The present study confirms it belonging to the genus Ophichthus and resurrected as a valid species from the east coast of India. It is compared with its closest congener species, particularly with Ophichthus microcephalus Day, 1878, known from India.

A new snake eel species of the genus Ophichthus (Anguilliformes: Ophichthidae) from the southeast coast of India, Bay of Bengal, with the taxonomic account of Ophichthus chilkensis

“…Indian Ocean: West Bengal, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh (Mishra et al, 2019), and the present samples were collected from off Cuddalore coast, Tamil Nadu, Bay of Bengal.…”

“…The genus Ophichthus (Ahl, 1789) is the speciose genus of the family Ophichthidae with more than 98 valid species (Fricke et al, 2023). Among these, 13 species, namely, Ophichthus altipennis (Kaup, 1856), Ophichthus apicalis (Anonymous Bennett, 1830a), Ophichthus cephalozona Bleeker, (1864), Ophichthus chennaiensis Das et al, (2020), Ophichthus chilkensis Chaudhuri, (1916), Ophichthus johnmccoskeri Mohapatra et al, (2018), Ophichthus kailashchandrai Mohapatra et al, (2020a), Ophichthus lithinus (Jordan & Richardson, 1908), Ophichthus machidai McCosker et al, (2012), Ophichthus macrochir (Bleeker, 1853), Ophichthus mccoskeri (Sumod et al, 2019), Ophichthus microcephalus Day, (1878), and Ophichthus sangjuensis (Ji & Kim, 2011) were documented or described from the Indian subcontinent (Das et al, 2020; Mishra et al, 2019; Mohanty et al, 2021; Mohapatra et al, 2018, 2019, 2020a, 2020b; Ray et al, 2015; Sumod et al, 2019). During the recent biodiversity survey of the landing centers along the Cuddalore coast, Bay of Bengal, several Ophichthus eel specimens were collected.…”

“…Ophichthus macrochir (Bleeker, 1853), Ophichthus mccoskeri (Sumod et al, 2019), Ophichthus microcephalus Day, (1878), and Ophichthus sangjuensis (Ji & Kim, 2011) were documented or described from the Indian subcontinent (Das et al, 2020;Mishra et al, 2019;Mohanty et al, 2021;Mohapatra et al, 2018Mohapatra et al, , 2019Mohapatra et al, , 2020aMohapatra et al, , 2020bRay et al, 2015;Sumod et al, 2019). During the recent biodiversity survey of the landing centers along the Cuddalore coast, Bay of Bengal, several Ophichthus eel specimens were collected.…”