1692-1694Shorthead fang blenny, Petroscirtes&nbsp;breviceps (Valenciennes, 1836), a species of the family Blenniidae (Order Blenniiformes) is reported here as first record from Chilika Lagoon, Odisha, India based on 20 specimens collected from Chilika lagoon. This also forms the first record from coastal waters of Odisha

Mishra, Subhrendu Sekhar

Mohanty, Swarup Ranjan

Mohapatra, Anil

Roy, Sanmitra

English

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Indian Journal of Geo Marine Sciences Vol. 48 (11), November 2019, pp. 1692-1694       First record of Shorthead fang blenny, Petroscirtes breviceps  (Valenciennes, 1836), from Chilika lagoon, India. Swarup Ranjan Mohanty1, Subhrendu Sekhar Mishra2, Sanmitra Roy1 & Anil Mohapatra1* 1Estuarine Biology Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Gopalpur-on-Sea, Ganjam, Odisha, India 2Marine Fish Section, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, India *[E-mail: anil2k7@gmail.com]  Received 02 May 2018; revised 06 June 2018 Shorthead fang blenny, Petroscirtes breviceps (Valenciennes, 1836), a species of the family Blenniidae  (Order Blenniiformes) is reported here as first record from Chilika Lagoon, Odisha, India based on 20 specimens collected from Chilika lagoon. This also forms the first record from coastal waters of Odisha. [Keywords: Blenniiformes; Blenniidae; Fishes; New record.]  Introduction Chilika lagoon, the largest coastal wetland on  the Indian subcontinent1, a Ramsar site, and an incredible biodiversity hotspot, a unique ecosystem of marine, brackish and freshwater components2. Mohanty et al.2 reviewed the 100 years fish species diversity from Chilika and documented 317 species belonging to 207 genera in 88 families and 23 orders2. In addition, four species of carangids, Caranx papuensis, Carangoides ferdau, Trachinotus botla and Trachinotus baillonii and one species of the family Apogonidae, Taeniamia macroptera and the electric ray, Narcine timlei, were reported recently3,4,5. Thus, the total number of fish species reported  from Chilika lagoon increased to 323 species. The only species of the family blenniidae from Chilika lagoon reported was Omobranchus zebra (Bleeker, 1868)2. Recently while working out the old collections of Chilika expedition of the year 1985–1987, twenty specimens of family blenniidae were identified as Petroscirtes breviceps (Valenciennes, 1836), which was not yet reported from the Chilika lagoon. This paper reports the Shorthead fang blenny, Petroscirtes breviceps (Valenciennes, 1836) from  the Chilika lagoon as well as in Odisha Coast for the first time.   Materials and Methods During Chilika expedition of the year, 1985–1987 few blenniid specimens were collected from the Chilika lagoon and remained unidentified among the general collections of the Estuarine Biology Regional Centre, Gopalpur-on-Sea, Odisha. The exact location of the collected specimens was not specified. The collected samples were identified as Petroscirtes breviceps (Valenciennes, 1836) following standard literature6,7. The specimens were registered and deposited at Estuarine Biology Regional Centre  (Reg No. EBRC/ZSI/F9830). Specimens were preserved in 70 % alcohol. Photographs and the  detail morphometric measurements were taken  from the preserved specimens. All measurements were made by digital calipers.   Results Taxonomic account of the identified species is presented here: Class Actinopterygii Order Blenniiformes Family Blenniidae Genus Petroscirtes Rüppell 1830 Petroscirtes breviceps (Valenciennes, 1836)   Diagnostic characters  D X-XI, 19-20; A II, 18-19; P 14-15; V I, 3; C 11.  Body elongated but small and scaleless. Its depth ranges from 5.2 – 6.3 in total length. Head is associated with the pores and mouth on ventral side, 4.2–4.8 in total length. Profile of the snout oblique, snout length 2.8–3.2 in head length. Eyes not very large with size ranging between 3.2–3.9 in head length. Interorbital space slightly concave, 2.9–3.8 in MOHANTY et al. : PETROSCIRTES BREVICEPS  FROM CHILIKA LAGOON   1693 head length. Dorsal and anal fin base long and fins are very flexible. Origin of dorsal fin distinctly behind rim of orbit and pre-dorsal ranges from 5.3–5.9 in total length. Dorsal fin and anal fin rays segmented. Anal fin origin immediately after anus and preanal length 2.2–2.7 in total length. Last ray of dorsal  and anal fins broadly bound by a membrane to  caudal peduncle. Upper and lower jaw have a  series of incisor-like teeth and the lower jaw have  a long canine teeth which do not possess any  groove along anterior surface. Gill opening entirely above the pectoral fin base. Caudal fin rays not branched. Symphysial mandibular cirri simple; posttemporal cirrus present; other cirri mostly not traceable or minute.  Colour of the preserved specimen Body yellowish in colour with a broad dark band along head and lateral side of the body. In the head and body above the dark band is having some black dots. Dorsal fin base with dotted lines and also has some black dots on fin. Caudal fin without any dots and it is yellowish.  Discussion This species was first described as Blennechis breviceps from Bay of Bengal8 though exact locality not mentioned. But the species seems to be rare. Though Francis Day in his monumental work9 included this species, not mentioned any specific locality nor given the Figure 1. From Indian waters, it has been recorded from Matla river, West Bengal10; from Rutland Island, South Andaman11; and from Gulf of Mannar, Tamil Nadu12.  Out of 11 valid species known6,13 in the genus Petroscirtes, only 4 species have dark horizontal stripes on the body and others usually speckled or variable in colour12. In P. breviceps a dark stripe is parallel to the dorsal body surface and extends up to the base of the dorsal fin covering the entire length of the body, the second stripe if present faintly developed; distally the dorsal fin is either spotted or reticulated and the anal fin is either spotted, reticulated or almost uniformly dark with a minute orbital cirrus13. P. pylei have the lowermost dark stripe extending into the anal fin; P. fallax has two dark stripes, but the dorsal fin is uniformly coloured with a black spot, normally located to the distal margin of the interradial membranes of the first 3 or  4 spines; P. marginatus has a narrow dusky area proximally on dorsal fin, a comparatively wider pale stripe above, and the distal half to two-thirds of the fin is comparatively darker; in both the species, the ventral body stripe does not extend up to the base of anal fin13. While P. pylei is known from Fiji Islands, P. fallax endemic to eastern Australia and P. marginatus recorded from China, and only P. breviceps have a wider range of distribution in Indo-west Pacific. The present study records occurrence of Petroscirtes breviceps (Valenciennes, 1836) first time from Chilika lagoon and Odisha coast as well.  Acknowledgement  We thank Dr. Kailash Chandra, Director, Zoological Survey of India, for providing the necessary working facilities. We thank the Anonymous team of the Zoological Survey of India for the collection of the specimens.   References 1 Mohapatra, A., Mohanty, R.K., Mohanty S.K., Bhatta, K.S. & Das, N.R., Fisheries enhancement and biodiversity assessment of fish, prawn and mud crab in Chilika lagoon through hydrological intervention. Wetlands ecol. Manag., 15(2007) 229-252. 2 Mohanty, S.K., Mishra, S.S., Khan, M., Mohanty, R.K., Mohapatra, A. & Pattnaik, A.K., Ichthyofaunal diversity  of Chilika Lake, Odisha, India: an inventory, assessment  of biodiversity status and comprehensive systematic  checklist (1916–2014). Check List, 11(2015) 1817. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.15560/11.6.1817. 3 Mukherjee, M., Karna, S. K., Suresh, V. R., Manna, R. K., Panda, D. & Raut, A., New records of Carangids (Perciformes: Carangidae) from Chilika Lagoon, east coast of India. FishTaxa, 2(2017) 226-231.  4 Mukherjee, M., Karna, S.K., Manna, R.K., Suresh,  V.R., Panda, D., Sharma, A.P., Roychowdhury, A. &  Raut, A., First record of dusky tailed cardinal fish, Taeniamia macroptera (Cuvier, 1828) from Chilika  lagoon, India. Indian J. Geo Mar. Sci., 47(2018)  176-179.   Fig. 1 — Petroscirtes breviceps (Valenciennes, 1836), from Chilika Lake, Odisha, India  INDIAN J. MAR. SCI., VOL. 48, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2019   1694 5 Rosith, C.M., Manna, R.K., Suresh, V.R., Panda, D., Sharma, A.P., Roy Chowdhury, A., Mukherjee, M. & Banik, S.K., Electric ray Narcine timlei (Torpediniformes: Narcinidae) from Chilika lagoon, Odisha, India. Curr. Sci., 110(2016) 1408-1410. 6 Smith-Vaniz, W.F., The saber-toothed blennies, tribe Nemophini (Pisces: Blenniidae). Monographs of the Academy of Nat. Sci. Philadelphia No. 19 (1976): i-vii + 1-196, 18 plates. 7 Allen G R & Erdmann M V, Reef fishes of the East Indies, (Universitiy of Hawaii Press, Perth, Australia) Volumes I-III, 2012, pp. 1260 8 Valenciennes, A., in Cuvier, G. and Valenciennes, A. Histoire naturelle des poissons. Tome onzième. Livre treizième. De la famille des Mugiloïdes. Livre quatorzième. De la famille des Gobioïdes. 11 (1836): i-xx + 1-506 + 2 pp., Pls. 307-343. 9 Day, F., The fishes of India, being a Natural History of the fishes known to inhabit the seas and freshwater of India, Burma and Ceylon. London. Part 2, 1876, 169-368, 41-78 pIs. (+ 51 A-C). 10 Mukherjee P, Intertidal Fishes. Hugli Matla Estuary., Estuarine Ecosystem Series, Zool. Surv. India, Part 2, 1995, pp. 345-388. 11 Rao D V, Devi K, Rajan P T, An account of ichthyofauna of Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Bay of Bengal, Zoological Survey of India, 2000, pp. 434.  12 Joshi, K.K., Sreeram, M.P., Zacharia, P.U., Abdussamad, E.M., Varghese, M., Mohammed Habeeb, O.M.M.J., Jayabalan, K., Kanthan, K.P., Kannan, K., Sreekumar,  K.M., George, G. & Varsha, M.S., Check list of fishes  of the Gulf of Mannar ecosystem, Tamil Nadu, India.  J. mar. biol. Ass. India, 58 (1) (2016) 34-54. doi: 10.6024/jmbai.2016.58.1.1895-05 13 Smith-Vaniz, W.F., Petroscirtes pylei, a new saber-toothed blenny from the Fiji Islands (Teleostei: Blenniidae). Zootaxa, 1046 (2005) 29-36.   

First record of Shorthead fang blenny, Petroscirtes breviceps  (Valenciennes, 1836), from Chilika lagoon, India.

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First record of Shorthead fang blenny, Petroscirtes breviceps (Valenciennes, 1836), from Chilika lagoon, India.

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