New Record and Range Extension of the Orange Scorpionfish, Neomerinthe amplisquamiceps (Scorpaenidae), in the Coastal Wa
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New Record and Range Extension of the Orange Scorpionfish, Neomerinthe amplisquamiceps (Scorpaenidae), in the Coastal Waters of Visakhapatnam, India Muddula Krishna Naranji 1
&
Ronald Fricke 2 & Andre Luiz Netto-Ferreira 3
&
GovindaRao Velamala 1
Received: 31 January 2020 / Revised: 23 April 2020 / # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract In this paper, we report finding of 74 specimens of Neomerinthe amplisquamiceps (Scorpaendiae) and field observations of this species from the Indian coast. Specimens of N. amplisquamiceps were captured between 150 and 300 m depth with a 38 m high speed demersal trawl (crustacean version, codend, mesh size 40 mm) and 46 m Expo model demersal trawl (mesh size 30 mm). This rare, poorly known species is the only member of the genus Neomerinthe in the Indian ichthyofauna. The new records improve the current knowledge on N. amplisquamiceps, and refine the limits of its geographical distribution and habitat preference. Analyses of morphometric and meristic characters confirmed the identity of the specimens and are described, compared and summarized. Keywords Scorpaenidae . New distributional record . Neomerinthe amplisquamiceps . India
Introduction The scorpionfishes (Scorpaenidae, Scorpaeniformes) are a diverse group consisting of over 230 valid species (Nelson et al. 2016; Fricke et al. 2019). They are robust, moderately compressed fishes, with large spiny heads, occurring mostly in tropical or temperate waters (Poss 1999). They are benthic, mostly rocky reef dwellers, being usually found from near the sea shores to a depth of 800 m (Poss 1999; Poss and Eschmeyer 2003; Fricke et al. 2018; Naranji et al. 2018). The genus Neomerinthe is a small, poorly known group comprising 13 valid species distributed in the Indo-West Pacific and the Atlantic: Neomerinthe amplisquamiceps (Fowler 1938) from the eastern Indian Ocean and western Pacific (Fowler 1938); N. bauchotae (Poss and Duhamel 1991) from Saint Paul Island, southern Indian Ocean (Poss and Duhamel 1991); N. beanorum (Evermann and Marsh 1900) from the
* Muddula Krishna Naranji [email protected] 1
Department of Marine Living Resources, College of Science and Technology, Andhra University, Andhra Pradesh 530 003 Visakhapatnam, India
2
Lauda-Königshofen, Germany
3
Laboratory of Ichthyology, Departmento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, RS Porto Alegre, Brazil
western Atlantic (Evermann and Marsh 1900); N. bucephalus (Alcock 1896) from India (Alcock 1896); N. erostris (Alcock 1896) from the Indo-West Pacific (Alcock 1896); N. folgori (Postel and Roux 1964) from the eastern Atlantic (Postel and Roux 1964); N. hemingwayi Fowler 1935 from the western Atlantic (Fowler 1935); N. kaufmani (Herre 1952) from the western Pacific (Herre 1952); N. megalepis (Fowler 1938) from the western Pacific (Fowler 1938); N. naevosa (Motomura et al. 2011) from the South Pacific (Motomura et al. 2011); Neomernthe pallidimacula (Fowler 1938) from the Indo-West Pacific (Fowler 1938); N. pr
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