The band fish Acanthocepola indica (Perciformes: Cepolidae)
in the Northern Bay of Bengal, India
Alakesh Pradhan & Bijay K. Mahapatra
ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Kolkata Centre, Salt Lake, West Bengal, India; alakeshpradhan@gmail.com,
bkmahapatra@cife.edu.in
Received 10-VIII-2017 • Corrected 20-IX-2017 • Accepted 04-X-2017
ABSTRACT: A relatively poorly known species of band fish,
Acanthocepola indica (Cepolidae), is reported for the first time from
the north-east coast of India, Bay of Bengal, based on single specimen
236,86mm long, collected in Digha. We include a detailed, illustrated
description of the specimen.
RESUMEN: Presencia del pez Acanthocepola indica (Perciformes:
Cepolidae) en la Bahía del Norte de Bengala, India. Informamos la
presencia de Acanthocepola indica (Cepolidae), en la Bahía de Bengala,
a partir de un ejemplar de 236,83mm de longitud, recolectada en
Digha, e incluimos una descripción detallada.
Key words: new record, range extension
Palabras clave: nuevo registro, ampliación de ámbito
The fishes of the family Cepolidae, commonly known
as band fishes, comprise five genera with 66 species
widely distributed in the tropical and subtropical seas
throughout the world (Day, 1889; Smith, 1949; Shen,
1993; Heemstra, 1995; Froese & Pauly, 2017). From these
66 species, 45 are currently considered valid species
(Eschmeyer & Fong, 2017), and 36 belong to the subfamily Owstoniinae and nine to the subfamily Cepolinae.
Members of this family are associated with a variety of
marine habitats such as sandy or muddy bottoms, and
reefs at depths ranging between 40 and 300m (Nakabo,
2002); usually found in 180-200m depth. The members of
the Cepolidae are of great interest for ichthyologists and
aquarist due to their body shape, peculiar tail-burrowing nature and coloration patterns. There are numerous
documentations, reports and studies carried out so far
on ichthyofaunal diversity of West Bengal earlier (Manna
& Goswami, 1985; Goswami, 1992; Talwar, Mukherjee,
Saha, Paul & Kar, 1992; Chatterjee, Ramakrishna, Talukdar
& Mukherjee, 2000; Das et al., 2007; Sanyal, Alfred,
Venkataraman, Tiwari & Mitra, 2012; Venkataraman,
RajkumarRanjan, Satyanarayana, Raghunathan &
Venkatraman, 2012; Mahapatra & Lakra, 2015; Mahapatra
& Pradhan, 2016; Pradhan & Mahapatra, 2017), but none
of them report the occurrence of A. indica in these waters. This species is reported here for the first time from
the northern Bay of Bengal and its occurrence in West
Bengal is confirmed.
One specimen of Acanthocepola indica (Day, 1888)
[236,83mm in total length (TL); Fig. 1], was collected
(Fig. 1), on 19 August 2016, by Mr. Alakesh Pradhan and
Dr. B. K. Mahapatra, on a mechanized fishing vessel, in a
trawl net at about 24 nautical miles from Digha coast of
West Bengal, India (21°37.843’N, 87°32.827’E), at 31m of
depth. The identification of the specimen was based on
Day (1889), Masuda, Amaoka, Araga, Uyeno and Yoshino
(1984), Smith-Vaniz (1986), Fischer and Bianchi (1994),
Smith-Vaniz (2001), Eschmeyer, Fricke and van der Laan
(2017) and Froese and Pauly (2017). Morphometric measurements of the specimen are given in Digital Appendix
1. The specimen was preserved in 10% formaldehyde
and deposited in the Museum of ICAR-Central Institute
of Fisheries Education, Kolkata Centre, Salt Lake (CIFE/
KOL/MW/F0232). Other morphometric and meristic details of the specimen are given in the description section.
UNED Research Journal (ISSN: 1659-441X) Vol. 10(1): 115-118, June, 2018
115
CEPOLIDAE Rafinesque, 1810
Acanthocepola Bleeker, 1874
Acanthocepola indica Day, 1888
Cepola indica, Day, 1888 (p. 796)
Diagnosis: Body ribbon-like, caudal confluent with
dorsal and anal fin. Head short, with blunt snout. Eyes
large and high on head. Mouth large, oblique; upper
jaw broad at end, without supra-maxilla, and extending
to below posterior margin of eye; a single row of slightly curved teeth in jaws. Dorsal fin continuous, with 109
rays; anal fin with 98 rays; caudal fin pointed. Lateral line
high on body, close to dorsal-fin base. Body uniformly orange-red or pink; anterior part of dorsal fin with a
black blotch.
Detailed description: Body elongated, laterally compressed; gradually narrowing to caudal fin. Head short;
6,5in TL, with blunt snout and 6 branchiostegal rays. Eyes
comparatively large and high on head, 3,5in head length
(HL). Mouth large, oblique; gape wide; maxilla reaching the posterior margin of eye; a single row of slender,
slightly curved canine teeth in each jaws. Posterior margin of pre-opercle serrated with 6 spines, one at angle
of pre-opercle, one on the vertical, and four on the horizontal margin. Scales small cycloid in nature, but distinct,
cheeks scaled, absent in opercles. Dorsal fin origin slightly behind orbit and middle of pectoral fin, with 109 unbranched rays; pre-dorsal length 8,8in TL, dorsal fin base
1,2 in TL; anal fin with 98 rays; pre-anal length 6,4in TL;
pectoral fin well developed with 21 rays and its length
more or less equal to pelvic fin length, elongated and not
pointed, its length 1,7in HL; dark outer edged dorsal and
anal fins are confluent with caudal fin by a membrane,
which is very hard and pointed; anterior part of dorsal fin
with a black blotch between the seventh and eleventh
dorsal fin rays. 151 total vertebrae, 11 pre-dorsal and
68 pre-anal vertebrae. Lateral line originate from upper
margin of opercle and high on body, close to dorsal-fin
base. Body uniformly orange-red or pink with many orange-yellow vertical lines (Fig. 2).
Distribution: Acanthocepola indica is known to occur
inthe Indo-Western Pacific region through South Africa
(Natal) (Heemstra, 1995), Taiwan (Shen, 1993), India and
Japan. It is very rare and only found in Penghu Islands,
western Taiwan.
Habitat: Acanthocepola indica is a bentho-pelagic fish
usually found in shallow waters in a variety of marine
habitats, including muddy and fine-sandyareas; rarely
found in coral reef areas.
Remarks: The genus Acanthocepola is known to have
about 4 species worldwide (Froese & Pauly, 2017). The
majority of these species have uniform body coloration,
while others have distinct dark bands or spots. A. indica
has a close resemblance with Acanthocepola limbata by
Fig. 1. (A) Preserved specimen and (B) x-ray Radiograph of A. indica from Northern Bay of Bengal,
West Bengal, India (CIFE/KOL/MW/F0232; TL = 236,83mm)
116
UNED Research Journal (ISSN: 1659-441X) Vol. 10(1): 115-118, June, 2018
Fig. 2. (A) Lateral view of head and mouth; (B) dorsal view of inter-orbital ridge; and (C) ventral view of branchiostigal rays
of A. indica from Northern Bay of Bengal, West Bengal, India (CIFE/KOL/MW/F0232; TL = 236,83mm)
certain morphological characters and by adult pigmentation. The characteristic of indistinct black blotch on
anterior part of dorsal fin between the 7th and 11th dorsal fin rays of Acanthocepola indica separates it from A.
limbata (dark red oblong blotch on the dorsal between
9th and 14th dorsal fin rays) and A. krusensternii (blotch
absent). Acanthocepola abbreviata have lower number of
dorsal fin (D. 67-74) and anal fin rays (A. 67-74) than A.
indica (D. 109; A. 98).
Acanthocepola indica was described by Day (1888)
as Cepola indica based on one specimen from Madras,
India. As the species was originally described from India
(Madras), so that the basic information documenting its
occurrence in India. There was lacuna of information of
this species and apparently, no one since then has reported this species from India. Hence, an attempt has
been made in this paper to provide occurrence details
and to confirm the presence of Acanthocepola indica on
the east coast of India and an addition to the ichthyofaunal diversity of Bengal coastal waters. The detailed
description of the species was also provided. The morphometric characters and meristic values of A. indica of
the presently reported study match well those of the holotype in the original description.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are greatly indebted to the Director,
ICAR-CIFE, Mumbai for providing necessary facilities for
the work. Authors are also thankful to David G. Smith
(Smithsonian Institution, Museum Support Centre,
Suitland, MD, USA for his valuable help in providing specific literature and information to prepare the manuscript.
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