Comments on the four new species of ribbon-fishes (Family Trichiuridae) recently reported from India

Abstract

Gupta (1966) described briefly two new species of ribbon-fishes of the genus Trichiurm Linnaeus, viz., T. gangeticus and T. pantului from the Hooghly estuarine system, strangely enough, without citing earlier literature on the group. Subsequent to this report, Dutt and Thankam (1966) described two more new species of trichiurid fish from Waltair, namely Trichiurus russelli and Lepturacanthus serratus. Later, Gupta (1967) gave further details on the two species he reported. As one with some experience with the fishes of the family Trichiuridae from India, I felt the need to comment in detail on these new species based on examination of holotypes, paratypes, other material in my possession and the published details, the particulars of which are given in this paper. In this connection, it was also felt essential to re-examine the types of at least certain species which have been synonymised with Trichiurus lepturus Linnaeus and Lepturacanthus savala (Cuvier) available at the British Museiun, Paris Museum and Leiden Museum as well as published details of such species since the new species are supposed to have close affinity to them and also because the authors of the new species have not paid attention to this aspect. Particulars of these, made available to the author from the Museums mentioned above are discussed at the relevant places in the text. There are several other aspects of these fishes studied by me which have a bearing on these new species but they remained unpublished for some time. These are dealt with in detail in the memoir on the ribbon-fishes of family Trichiuridae of India, (James, 1967). where brief comments on the four new species are also given in the Addendum