First record of the African spadefish, Tripterodon orbis Playfair, 1867 (family: Ephippidae) from the northeast coast of India

Behera, Pralaya Ranjan and Ghosh, Shubhadeep and Satish Kumar, M (2015) First record of the African spadefish, Tripterodon orbis Playfair, 1867 (family: Ephippidae) from the northeast coast of India. Marine Biodiversity Records, 8. pp. 1-4.

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Abstract

The family Ephippidae, commonly known as spadefishes, comprises eight genera (Nelson, 2006) and 15 valid species (Eschmeyer & Fong, 2014), mostly inhabiting coastal waters around reefs, up to a depth of 30 m (Nelson, 2006). The genus Platax is the most speciose, while the genus Tripterodon is monotypic (Jawad et al., 2012). The maximum length attained by Tripterodon orbis is 750 mm (Fischer & Bianchi, 1984; Heemstra & Heemstra, 2004), with common lengths reaching 300 mm. They feed on rock and coral-dwelling organisms and their flesh is edible (Froese & Pauly, 2014). The species had earlier been reported from the Western Indian Ocean (Somalia, Kenya, south to Algoa Bay, South Africa), from the Red sea and from the eastern Indian Ocean (Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Sri Lanka) (Froese & Pauly, 2014). Indrasenan (1960) had also reported the occurrence of Tripterodon orbis from Rameswaram Island, in the Gulf of Mannar, south-east coast of India. However, this is the first occurrence of the species at Visakhapatnam along the north-east coast of India, a significant extension of its distribution from the southern to the northern region, along the Bay of Bengal.

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