New Distributional Record of Oblique-barred Monocle Bream Scolopsis xenochrous, Günther, 1872 (Perciformes: Nemipteridae) from Wadge Bank of Southeastern Arabian Sea

Abstract

The present study reports the Scolopsis xenochrous Gunther, 1872 off Vizhinjam coast, from Wadge Bank, Southeastern Arabian Sea. Four specimens of S. xenochrous were collected at a depth of 20 to 30 m by a gill net operated by traditional fishing craft. The morphometric and molecular identification characters of the verified specimens are described. The most of the morphometric measurement and meristic counts were confirmed with earlier explanation of S. xenochrous: Totally 45–46 lateral line scale, caudal fin deeply forked and upper lobe slightly lengthier than the lower lob and produced into a short or moderately long filament. Further, it has six oblique rows with thirty-two numbers of brown spots and an elongate white to bluish blotch below the lateral line. The present Indian specimen’s sequences were compared with other sequences of the S. xenochrous and other species of this genus obtained from the NCBI, BOLD, and Cryobank. The overall level of intra-species genetic distances was 2.7%, between Taiwan, Indonesia and Philippines were showed 0.0-0.5% of variation except for KY362992. The present study revealed the first record for the Wadge Bank coast of Southeastern Arabian Sea.