Rec. zool. Surv. India: Vol. 120(3)/277–280, 2020 ISSN (Online) : 2581-8686 DOI: 10.26515/rzsi/v120/i3/2020/149931 ISSN (Print) : 0375-1511 Occurrence of rare smalleye snake , Allips concolor McCosker, 1972 (Anguilliformes: ) along Paradeep coast, Odisha, India

Swarup Ranjan Mohanty1, Anil Mohapatra1 and Laxman Kumar Murmu2* 1Estuarine Biology Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Gopalpur-on-Sea, Ganjam – 761002, Odisha, India Email: [email protected] 2P.G. Department of Zoology, Berhampur University, Bhanja Bihar, Brahmapur, Ganjam, Odisha, India Email: [email protected]

Abstract This paper reports one of the rare eel from Indian waters, Allips concolor McCosker, 1972, along Paradeep coast. Authors

and till date this species was represented from Indian coast by that specimen. In the world, this rare species is represented byreported only six the numbers same species of specimens. in 2018 Thus for the the first details time of in morphometric Indian waters and with meristic single specimencharacters collected of the recently from Chilika collected lagoon rare eel specimen are represented in this paper.

Keywords: Conservation, Odisha, Ophichthidae, Uncommon

Introduction specimen belongs to the species Allips concolor McCosker (1972). Morphometric, counting of the pores and teeth The monospecific genusAllips McCosker (1972) was done by Leica S9i digital stereo microscope and vertebrae recorded as the new having the distinguishing count by radiographs (Böhlke, 1982). The specimens were characters as: ‘elongated and cylindrical body with preanal deposited in Estuarine Biology Regional Centre, ZSI, with length longer than the tail length; dorsal fin originated at registration number EBRC/ZSI/ F11760. about one head length behind the gill opening; dorsal and anal fin low and lying within a grove; eye minute and pectoral fin rudimentary’ (McCosker, 1972). In the Results present study, authors collected some eel samples from Systematic Accounts Paradeep fish landing centre and while working out on those collections only one example of Allips concolor was Phylum CHORDATA identified. This study addsmorphometric and meristic Class data and stressing special attention for its conservation Order ANGUILLIFORMES because of its rare occurance against overexplaitation Family OPHICHTHIDAE done by trawling operations. Allips concolor McCosker (1972) Material and Methods 1972. Allips concolor McCosker, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. (Series 4) 39(10): 117. Figs. 4–5. One specimen of the genus Allips was collected in the year 2019 during sampling in Paradeep fish landing Material examined: EBRC/ZSI F11760. 1 ex., 496 mm, centre (20°17’25.90”N; 86°42’26.73”E), Odisha, India. Paradeep fish landing centre (20°17’25.90”N; After literature survey (McCosker, 1972; Ho et al., 2018; 86°42’26.73”E), Odisha, India, 08.xii.2019, Swarup Mohapatra et al., 2018) the authors concluded that the Ranjan Mohanty.

* Author for correspondence Article Received on: 30.12.2019 Accepted on: 06.02.2020 Occurrence of rare smalleye snake eel....

Table 1. Morphometric and meristic data of Allips concolor with comparative study

EBRC/ZSI/F11760 EBRC/ZSI/F 9881 Characters NMMB-P27884 Holotype Present study (Mohapatra et al., 2018) Total length (mm) 496 338 392 375 % SL Head length 5.4 5.6 5.2 5.6 Predorsal length 11 13.0 10.9 12.8 Trunk length 52 51.2 53.8 54.7 Preanal length 57.4 56.8 58.9 60.3 Tail length 42.5 43.2 41.1 39.7 % HL Snout length 12.3 13.2 12.4 14.3 Eye diameter 3 3.2 4.2 2.9 Upper jaw length 22.4 26.3 25.6 24.8 Interorbital width 7.1 10.5 8.7 12.4 Meristics Pre-pectoral pores 8 8 8 * Pre-dorsal pores 21 23 21 * Pre-anal pores 105 106 105 * Supraobtial pores 4 4 3 3 Infraorbital pores 4+2 4+2 4 4 Frontal pore 1 1 1 1 Mandibular pores 4 4 4 4 Preopercular pores 2 2 2 2 Supertempal pores 1 1 1 1 Predorsal vertebrae 19 22 21 20 Preanal vertebrae 101 97 104 96 Total vertebrae 182 178 180 174

Figure 1. Allips concolor from Paradeep coast.

278 Vol 120(3) | 2020 | www.recordsofzsi.com Zoological Survey of India Swarup Ranjan Mohanty, Anil Mohapatra and Laxman Kumar Murmu

Diagnostic characters: Body of this eel elongated and Ranong, Thailand (McCosker, 1972). Later same species cylindrical, with dorsal fin origin about one head length was reported by McCosker et al. (2006) based on three behind gill opening, having pre-dorsal length 9.0 in specimens collected from off Northern Territory. Recently, total length (TL). Dorsal and anal fins low, lying within single specimen was reported off Dong-gang fishing a shallow groove. Both the fins end before the tail tip, port, Pingtung, southwestern Taiwan, South China Sea thus tail tip finless Preanal length 1.7 in TL and tail 2.4 (Ho et al., 2018) and one specimen from Chilika lagoon, in TL head length (HL) 18.5 in TL. Snout pointed, 8.6 Odisha, India, (Mohapatra et al., 2018). Thus this species in HL. Upper jaw longer than the lower jaw, 5.4 in HL is known worldwide by only six specimens till date. Eye small, situated towards rictus, 38.3; interorbital width Elongated and thin body, long trunk, small eyes, 15.8 in HL. Pectoral fin very minute Gill opening placed presence of dorsal and anal fins in deep groove and laterally. Body depth at gill opening and at anus is 72.9 extremely short pectoral fin of the genusAllips gives a and 95.4 respectively in TL. Anterior nostril a small tube unique identity to this group and Allips concolor is only like structure where as posterior nostril opens into the species in this genus, which does not create any confusion mouth but covered with a small flap. Head pores and with other groups during identification. The present teeth very minute maxillary teeth uniserial at both the paper reports the longest specimen among the known end with overlapping middle point vomerine teeth with specimens. Even, total vertebrae of this specimen are a small patch of biserial and followed by uniserial row of more than the earlier recorded one. teeth prevomerine teeth 2 on each side and single teeth at Present work draws attention to the conservation middle pre-dorsal vertebrae 19, preanal vertebrae 101 and of species Allips concolor due to its rare occurrence total vertebrae 182 (Table 1). worldwide. Present paper reports the second example of Allips concolor from India after Mohapatra et al. (2018). Colour: Uniform light brown in colour after preservation This species is not evaluated for its conservation status (Figure 1), but in fresh yellowish brown in dorsally and yet (IUCN, 2019). Considering the rarity of the species, whitish in ventrally. but a wider range of distribution more data may be Distribution: Allips concolor one of the most rare species gathered throughout its range for its proper evaluation and distributed in Thailand (McCosker, 1972); Australia and conservation so as to avoid the threat of it becoming (Larson et al., 2013); Taiwan (Ho et al., 2018) and India an endangered species owing to overexploitation and (Mohapatra et al., 2018). discarded as a component of bycatch.

Discussion Acknowledgements Allips is a monospecific genus recorded very rarely from Authors are thankful to Dr. Kailash Chandra, Director, the date of its discovery. Holotype of A. concolor was Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata for providing established on the basis of single specimen collected from necessary facilities for the work and Shankar Bej, the mouth of the Pakehan River, north of Ban Parknam fisherman for this support during sampling.

References

Böhlke, E.B. 1982. Vertebral formulae of type specimens of (Pisces: Anguilliformes), Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sci- ences of Philadelphia, 134: 31-49. Ho, H.C., Hibino, Y. and Huang, J.F. 2018. Note on rare snake eels (Anguilliformes: Ophichthidae) and additional data on three Neenchelys recently described from Taiwan, Zootaxa, 4454(1): 200-214. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4454.1.16. PMid: 30314244. IUCN, 2019. The IUCN red list of threatened species. Version 2019-2.https://www.iucnredlist.org . Larson, H.K., Williams, R.S. and Hammer, M.P. 2013. An annotated checklist of the fishes of the Northern territory, Australia. Zoot- axa, 3696(1): 1-293. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3696.1.1 PMid:26079024

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McCosker, J.E. 1972. Two new genera and two new species of western Pacific Snake-Eels (Apodes: Ophichthidae),Proceedings of the Calofornia Academy of Sciences, 39(10): 111-120. McCosker, J.E., Allen, G.R., Hoese, D.F., Gates, J.E. and Bray, D.J. 2006. Ophichthidae. In: Hoese, D.F., Bray, D.J., Paxton, J.R. and Allen, G.R. (Eds.), Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Volume 35. Fishes. Part 1. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood; p. 264-277. Mohapatra, A., Mohanty, S.R., Mishra, S.S. and Ray, D. 2018. First report of a rare snake eel, Allips concolor McCosker, 1972 (Anguil- liformes: Ophichthidae) from Indian waters. Iranian Journal of Ichthyology, 5(4): 312-316.

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