New Geographical Record for the Two Lesser Known Flatfishes from the North-Eastern Arabian Sea

Flatfishes of genus Laeops Gunther 1880 and Aseraggodes Kaup, 1858 are relatively less known despite having fairly good species richness owing to the paucity of specimens available for studies. North-eastern Arabian Sea having high productivity and wide continental slope offers ideal habitat for the benthic fauna like flatfishes. Laeops guentheri has been reported herein for the first time from the north-eastern Arabian Sea. The earlier report in the western Indian Ocean were restricted to the Persian Gulf and south-west coast of India. Aseraggodes umbratilis though known from the eastern Arabian Sea, but the reports were restricted to Northern and Southern extremities of Indian subcontinent, leaving very long coastline with no previous record indicating a rather discontinuous distribution for the species. The present record of the species off Maharashtra coast of India for the first time fills a major missing link in the distributional range of the species along the eastern Arabian Sea.