On the snake mackerel, Gemphylus serpens Cuvier from the Laccadive Sea

Abstract

DURING the third cruise of R. V. KALAVA in the Laccadive Sea (Jones 1959) two specimens of Gempylus serpens Cuvier, measuring 580 mm. and 434 mm. in standard length were collected by me from Station No. 449 (Lat. 10°.39' N. Long. 72°.42' E) on 29-4-1959. The vessel stopped at this Station at 20.00 hrs. and the fish came the ship's side evidently attracted by the search light. The larger of the two (Plate I, fig. 1) was seen at about 20.30 hrs. and the second specimen about an hour later. The sea in this area is about 2200 metres deep. G. serpens is a bathypelagic form known from a number of places in the tropical regions of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans (Heyerdahl 1950, Herre 1953, Matsubara and Iwaii 1952 and Munro 1958). Except for a solitary specimen from East London, South Africa (Bernard 1927), it has not been recorded so far from the Indian Ocean. Its distribution in the Indo-Pacific is given in Plate II.