A new species of deep-water snake eel, Ophichthus nigroventralis (Anguilliformes: Ophichthidae) from the Arabian Sea, southwest coast of India

A new species of deep-water snake eel, Ophichthus nigroventralis sp. nov. is described based on five specimens collected from deep-sea trawl landings at Kalamukku fish landing Centre, off Kochi, Arabian Sea, southwest coast of India. The new species is distinguished from its deep-water congeners by the following combination of characters viz., origin of dorsal fin slightly behind pectoral-fin tip; pectoral fin lanceolate, slightly shorter than upper jaw in length; head length 6.7-7.5 in TL; supraorbital (SO) pores 1 + 3; intermaxillary with a rosette of 10 pointed teeth; vomer with 6 anterior teeth in irregular biserial rows, 11 posterior teeth in a uniserial row; maxillary with 24-25 uniserial teeth; abdomen with numerous minute black pigmentation extends up to tail; pectoral fin whitish with brown base; vertebral count (pre-dorsal/pre-anal/total): 17-18/53-54/131-134. The genetic analysis reveals that the species Ophichthus urolophus is the closest congener for the new species with a genetic divergence of 4.2%.