New Distributional Record of Deep Sea Snake Fish Acanthocepola indica (Day, 1888) from the Southwest Coast of India

Abstract

Deep sea snake fishes or band fishes belonging to the Family Cepolidae are widespread in eastern Atlantic, but rare in the central Indo-Pacific Ocean. A specimen of Acanthocepola sp. measuring 556 mm in total length (TL) weighing 139 g was collected from a multiday trawler, operated off the southwest coast of India and landed at Beypore Fisheries harbour, Calicut, Kerala on 9th November 2017. The species was identified as A. indicus based on morphometric and meristic characteristics which was later confirmed by DNA barcoding.