New Record of Bearded Ghoul, Inimicus didactylus (Pallas, 1769) (Scorpaeniformes: Synanceiidae) from the Southeast Coast
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New Record of Bearded Ghoul, Inimicus didactylus (Pallas, 1769) (Scorpaeniformes: Synanceiidae) from the Southeast Coast of India Paramasivam Kodeeswaran 1
&
Jayasimhan Praveenraj 2 & Natarajan Jayakumar 1
Received: 24 February 2020 / Revised: 12 May 2020 / Accepted: 5 June 2020 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract The Bearded Ghoul, Inimicus didactylus (Pallas, 1769), a member of stonefish family previously known to be distributed only in the western Pacific from southern Japan, northern Australia and Vanuatu is reported herein from the southeast coast of India. This report constitutes the fifth species of the genus Inimicus to be reported from the Indian waters. The meristic and morphological characters of I. didactylus recorded in the present study is compared with I. sinensis, a species commonly distributed in the east coast of India. Keywords Bycatch . Ichthyofauna . Indian Ocean . Range extension . Stinger Ghouls . Stonefish
Introduction The genus Inimicus Jordan & Starks, 1904 (stinger ghouls), a member of the stonefish family Synanceiidae is distributed along the Indo-West Pacific (Inaba and Motomura 2018). At present, there are 37 valid species under the family Synanceiidae and 12 valid species under the subfamily Choridactylinae (Fricke et al. 2020). Inimicus is represented by nine valid species, viz., I. brachyrhynchus (Bleeker, 1874), I. caledonicus (Sauvage, 1878), I. cuvieri (Gray, 1835), I. didactylus (Pallas, 1769), I. filamentosus (Cuvier, 1829), I. gruzovi Mandrytsa, 1991, I. japonicus (Cuvier, 1829), I. sinensis (Valenciennes, 1833) and I. smirnovi Mandrytsa, 1990. The genus Inimicus is characterized by the presence of highly poisonous spines in dorsal, pelvic and anal fins; absence of long filamentous tips at upper pectoral rays (expect I. filamentosus); depressed head; two to three free pectoral-fin rays (Jordan and Starks 1904; Fowler 1938; Eschmeyer et al. 1979). Even though these fishes possess venomous spines, they hold a highly important place in luxurious edible fish of
* Paramasivam Kodeeswaran [email protected] 1
Department of Fisheries Resource Management, Dr. M.G.R. Fisheries College and Research Institute, Ponneri, Tamil Nadu 601 204, India
2
Division of Fisheries Science, ICAR–Central Island Agricultural Research Institute, Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands 744 105, India
the Japanese market (Inaba and Motomura 2018). Along the Indian coast, the genus Inimicus is represented by four species, viz., I. caledonicus and I. cuvieri distributed along the Andaman Sea and Western Pacific Ocean; I. sinensis along the Eastern Indian and Western Pacific Ocean; and a single specimen of I. filamentosus reported from Parangipettai coastal waters, southeast coast of India (Dhaneesh et al. 2008). During a regular sampling at Royapuram Fishing Harbour, Southeast coast of India, two specimens of Inimicus didactylus were collected from bycatches of trawl landings. The species is recorded for the first time from India and reported herein after comparison with its known
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