Report of razor fish, Iniistius twistii (Labridae: Perciformes) from the south-west coast of India

Akhilesh, K V and Rajool Shanis, C P and Bineesh, K K (2012) Report of razor fish, Iniistius twistii (Labridae: Perciformes) from the south-west coast of India. Marine Biodiversity Records, 5 (91). pp. 1-3.

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Abstract

Wrasse (order Perciformes: family Labridae) comprise the second largest family of marine fish, with 509 species and 68 genera, the majority of which inhabits coastal waters (Nelson, 2006; Eschmeyer & Fong, 2012). The taxonomic history is complicated for many labrids, as juveniles, males and females can have different colour patterns and morphology, and some early descriptions were limited. The razor fish, genus Iniistius Gill 1862 was considered a synonym of Xyrichtys Cuvier 1814, but the former was resurrected to generic level by Randall & Earle (2002). This genus contains 19 valid species (Eschmeyer & Fong, 2012), and the characteristics of the genus are that the origin of the dorsal fin is over or less than half an orbit diameter behind the eye and that the first two dorsal spines are flexible (Randall & Earle, 2002).

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