First Record of a Eumegistus sp. (Perciformes: Bramidae) from India with Notes on their Distribution

Raju, Aju K and Kishore, T G and Sreenath, K R and Sobhana, K S (2023) First Record of a Eumegistus sp. (Perciformes: Bramidae) from India with Notes on their Distribution. Thalassas: An International Journal of Marine Sciences. pp. 1-5. ISSN 0212-5919

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Abstract

An adult male specimen of the oceanic pomfret Eumegistus illustris Jordan and Jordan 1922 caught from the Lakshadweep Sea was examined. Morphomeristic characters of the specimen were studied, and it happened to be the first record of Eumegistus sp. from India (from the Union Territory of Lakshadweep Islands) being caught by regular deep sea-going fishermen from southwest India. It can be easily distinguished from the only other conspecific E. brevorti by a higher vertebrae count (40–42 vs. 37–39) and also by a higher gill raker count (9–16 vs. 10). Various species of pomfrets (Perciformes: Bramidae) are often landed on the Indian coast but not to the level of a profitable resource because of their distributional and migratory peculiarities. This record, from around 50 km northwest of the island of Minicoy and around 420 km west off the nearest coast of Kerala, points to the more extensive distributional range of E. illustris in the tropical western Indian Ocean.

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