Pristipomoides filamentosus (Valenciennes, 1830)

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 : 43

Pristipomoides filamentosus (Valenciennes, 1830)

(Crimson jobfish)

1830. Serranus filamentosus Valencieennes , in Cuvier & Valencieennes, Hist. nat. poiss, 6: 508 (Saint-Denis, Reunion).

1985. Pristipomoides filamentosus : Allen, FAO Fish. Synop., (125) 6: 147, pl. 26, Figure 95.

Material examined: MARC /ZSI/F 2472, 5 ex., 96-160 mm SL, Digha Mohona, 14.03.2012, Coll. D. Ray.

Diagnosis: D X-XI, 10-11; A III, 8; P 16; V I, 5; LL 65; GR

25. Body elongated, robust, its depth 2.90-3.12 in SL; HL

2.42-2.58 in SL; interorbital space flat, 4.13-4.44 in HL; eye 4.59-4.8 in HL and snout 3.87-4.04 in HL. Lower jaw slightly protruding; both jaws with an outer row of conical and canine teeth and an inner band of villiform teeth, canines at front of lower jaw but not greatly enlarged; weak vomerine tooth patch triangular without a median posterior extension; tongue without teeth. Bases of dorsal and anal fins scale less, their last soft rays extended into short filaments; pectoral fins long, reaching level of anus and slightly falcate; caudal fin forked. Scale rows on back parallel to lateral line.

Colour: Body reddish purple and lower part reddish white; snout and interorbital space with narrow yellow lines; Soft dorsal and caudal fins margined with red.

Distribution: Indo-Pacific: East Africa to Hawaii and Tahiti, north to southern Japan, south to eastern Australia and Lord Howe Island (Froece and Pauly, 2013). In Indian coastal water this species was reported from Andaman & Nicobar Islands ( Rajan, 2001); Andhra Pradesh ( Barman et al., 2004); Maharshtra ( Barman et al., 2012) and Gujarat ( Barman et al., 2000).

Remarks: Usually in all Pristipomoides species number of dorsal spine is constantly 10. But one specimen so collected from Digha has 11 dorsal spines. This is an abnormal and rare condition observed. Except for number of dorsal spine, the specimen in all accounts agrees with P. filamentosus Valenciennes.