Scomber indicus, a new species of mackerel (Scombridae: Scombrini) from Eastern Arabian Sea
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Authors
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E. M. Abdussamad
CMFRI, Kochi
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Sandhya Sukumaran
CMFRI, Kochi
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Arun K. O. Ratheesh
Central Island Agricultural Research Institute, Port Blair, Andaman, India
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K. Mohamed Koya
CMFRI, Veraval
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K. P. S. Koya
Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute,
Calicut
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Prathibha Rohit
CMFRI,
Mangalore
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Sally Reader
3he Australian Museum, Sydney, Australia
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K. V. Akhilesh
CMFRI,
Mumbai
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A. Gopalakrishnan
Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute,
PB No. 1603.
Cochin-682 018,
Kerala,
India
Abstract
Scomber indicus, a new species of mackerel is described based on the specimens collected from the eastern Arabian Sea. The species is differentiated from its nearest congener Scomber australasicus, in having 29-32 gill rakers on lower limb of first gill arch, posteriormost part of hypohyal blunt, with presence of a pit between the hypohyal and the ceratohyal and also in having a posteriorly directed haemal spine which is deeply curved in the basal region. Genetic differentiation and divergence between the newly described species and the 4 valid species of the genus Scomber viz., S. scombrus, S. japonicus, S. australasicus and S. colias were compared using cytochrome c oxidase 1 and cytochrome b gene sequences. The new species was found closest to S. colias followed by S. japonicus with Kimura 2 parameter (K2P) values of 1.4 and 1.8% respectively. In the phylogenetic tree, sequences of Scomber indicus sp. nov. formed a distinct well separated clade with significant bootstrap values as compared to the sequences of S. scombrus, S. japonicus, S. australasicus and S. colias indicating their distinctiveness and separate species status.
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