First record of African Sailfin Flying Fish Parexocoetus mento (Valenciennes, 1847) (Beloniformes: Exocoetidae), from the waters off Andaman Islands, India

Abstract

Although the species is known to Western Pacific and Indian ocean from Marshall island to Japan to southern Africa and Red Sea; eastern Mediterranean from port Said to Gulf of Sirda and Near Rhodes Islands (Ben- Tuvia 1966; Fischer & Bianchi 1984; Parin 1986), the present study records a new geographic distribution of P. mento. Hence the Andaman waters as mentioned previously may harbour two Parexocoetus species, P. brachypterus and P. mento, similar as per the conclusion of Fischer & Bianchi (1984) from the Mediterranean Sea. In Andaman & Nicobar Islands, both the species are caught in selective lesser sardine gill nets as bycatch. The present record on the species is an additional species to biodiversity database of fishes of Andaman waters.