Lutjanus lunulatus (Park, 1797)

Ray, Dipanajan, Mohapatra, Anil, Mishra, S. S., Yennawar, Prasanna & Ghorai, Narayan, 2017, Snappers (Perciformes: Lutjanidae) of West Bengal coast with eight new records and a key for their identification, Records of the Zoological Survey of India 117 (1), pp. 39-48 : 41

Lutjanus lunulatus (Park, 1797)

(Lunartail Snapper)

1797. Perca lunulata Park, Trans. Linn. Soc., London. , 3:

37, pl. 6 (Sumatra, Indonesia).

1985. Lutjanus lunulatus : Allen, FAO Fish. Synop., (125)

6: 98, pl. 17, Figure 65.

Material examined: MARC /ZSI/F 2102, 1 ex., 216 mm SL, Digha Mohona, 08.12.2011, Coll. D. Ray.

Diagnosis: D X, 13; A III, 8; P 16; V I, 5; LL 49; GR 17. Body moderately deep, its depth 2.63 in SL; dorsal profile of head steeply sloped, HL 2.66 in SL. Pre orbital more or less equal to eye diameter, eye 4.06 in HL; interorbital space 4.02 in HL; snout 3.08 in HL. Preopercle with 6 scale rows; preopercular notch and knob poorly developed. Vomerine teeth patch crescentic and without a medial posterior extension; tongue with a patch of granular teeth. Longitudinal scale rows ascending obliquely above lateral line and running horizontally below it; predorsal scale beginning behind eye. First dorsal spine half length of second which is shorter than third, 4 th dorsal spine is longest among dorsal spines; following dorsal spines gradually decreasing in length. 1 st anal spine much shorter than 2 nd which is equal or slightly smaller than 3 rd; pectoral fin longer than ventral; soft dorsal and anal rounded; caudal fin emarginated.

Colour: Back and upper part of body pinkish red, ventral sides of head and belly yellowish white; dorsa fin light red and other fins are light yellow; caudal fin with broad crescent black band with the posterior portion of fin pink. Distribution: Indo-West Pacific: northeastern Arabian Sea to Philippines and Vanuatu (Froece and Pauly, 2013). In Indian coastal waters this species was reported from Andaman & Nicobar Island ( Rao, 2009); Palk Bay, Tamil Nadu ( Venkataraman et al., 2007); Andhra Pradesh ( Barman et al., 2004); Maharashtara ( Barman et al., 2012) and Gujarat ( Barman et al., 2000).