Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-tnzcf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-12T15:29:39.452Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

First record of the flat toadfish, Colletteichthys dussumieri (Batrachoidiformes: Batrachoididae) from estuarine waters of India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2010

Sebastian Roja,
P.R. Anilkumar and
K.Y. Mohammed Salih
Sebastian Roja*
Affiliation:
Cochin University of Science and Technology, Lakeside Campus, Cochin 682016, Ernakulam, Kerala, India
P.R. Anilkumar
Affiliation:
Cochin University of Science and Technology, Lakeside Campus, Cochin 682016, Ernakulam, Kerala, India
K.Y. Mohammed Salih
Affiliation:
Cochin University of Science and Technology, Lakeside Campus, Cochin 682016, Ernakulam, Kerala, India
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: S. Roja, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Lakeside Campus, Cochin 682016, Ernakulam, Kerala, India email: rojanaveen@gmail.com

Abstract

The present paper reports the first record of occurrence of the flat toadfish Colletteichthys dussumieri in the estuarine waters of India and the warmer waters of the coasts of the Arabian Gulf to India and Sri Lanka. It is often misidentified as Allenbatrachus grunniens (Linnaeus, 1758). Discrepancies in meristic and morphological characters were observed.

Keywords

ColletteichthysBatrachoididaeIndian estuaries

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Marine Biodiversity Records , Volume 3 , June 2010, e56
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2010

The family Batrachoididae, or toadfish, is the sole family in the order Batrachoidiformes (Haplodoci). They are a group of small to medium-sized bottom fish represented by 25 genera and 78 species (Greenfield et al., Reference Greenfield, Winterbottom and Collette2008) that inhabit warm waters of the coasts of America, Europe, Africa and India. Colletteichthys dussumieri is the only species in the genus Colletteichthys.

Valenciennes, in Cuvier & Valenciennes (Reference Cuvier and Valenciennes1837) described Batrachus dussumieri from Malabar, India, but the genus Batrachus is unavailable (Greenfield, Reference Greenfield2006). Day (Reference Day1876), in his classical work on the ‘Fishes of India’, has given the systematic account of this species as Batrachus grunniens (Bloch.) (Hutchins, Reference Hutchins1981). Bhimachar & Venkataraman (Reference Bhimachar and Venkataraman1952), while studying the inshore fish population of the Malabar coast, reported the species as Batrachus grunniens (Bloch.). Smith (Reference Smith1949) described the genus Austrobatrachus for the South African species Pseudobatrachus foedus Smith, 1947. Menon (Reference Menon1963) utilized Smith's genus for B. dussumieri; with the exception of Nagabhushanam & Rama Rao (Reference Nagabhushanam and Rama Rao1970) who used Halophyrne; the species has been referred to as A. dussumieri (Hutchins, Reference Hutchins1981, Reference Hutchins, Fischer and Bianchi1984; Randall, Reference Randall1995; Carpenter et al., Reference Carpenter, Harrison, Hodgson, Alsaffar and Alhazeem1997). While comparing dussumieri with Austrobatrachus foedus Greenfield (Reference Greenfield2006) observed wide deviation between their morphology and described a new genus Colletteichthys for the species and later placed it in the subfamily Halophyryninae (Greenfield et al., Reference Greenfield, Winterbottom and Collette2008). It is often misidentified as Batrachus grunniens (Linnaeus, Reference Linnaeus1758), now called Allenbatrachus grunniens.

Specimens of C. dussumieri were collected from Cochin Estuary (south-west coast of India) using gill-nets (70-mm). Morphometric and meristic characters are given in Table 1. The specimens agree well with the data from the holotype given by Greenfield (Reference Greenfield2006) (Table 2), except in the vertebral and lateral pore count. Randall (Reference Randall1995) in his book states that the species may occur in coral reefs or in seagrass or weedy bottoms and has been collected in tidepools. This first record of C. dussumieri from the Indian estuary corroborates the statement of Randall (Reference Randall1995) and indicates a marked extension of the distribution from its type locality (Malabar, 30 fathoms) and divergence in meristic and morphological characters.

Table 1.

Morphometric measures of Colletteichthys dussumieri (in mm, mean ± standard deviation) from estuarine waters of India.

Table 2.

Comparison of selected meristics and proportional measurements of Colletteichthys dussumieri from the Cochin Estuary with the holotype (Greenfield, Reference Greenfield2006).

DESCRIPTION

Three solid dorsal-fin spines without venom glands; three solid opercular and one short subopercular spine, often with a small second point below; two subopercular filaments; upper accessory pectoral-fin radial totally ossified; three lateral lines present, the upper with 43–53 pores, the middle with about six, and the lower with 26–30; no photophores; no scales; a funnel-shaped pit at top of pectoral-fin axil, with glandular tissue inside and extending from ventral pit margin onto axil; interorbital areas not crossed by conspicuous skin ridges; head into SL 2.4 to 2.8 times; two rows of pointed teeth in anterior portion of lower jaw; sides of lower jaw with single row of pointed teeth; upper jaw with three rows of pointed teeth anteriorly, two rows on side, grading into single row posteriorly; vomer and palatine with single row of pointed teeth; dorsal-fin elements III, 19–22; anal-fin rays, 15–17; pectoral-fin rays, 21–24; vertebrae, 29. The colour pattern light brown, shading to white ventrally, with four, irregular, branching, dark brown bars on body and dark bands and blotches on head and fin. Maximum length obtained is 30.5 cm.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We thank Dr David W. Greenfield, CAS for his valuable suggestions.

References

REFERENCES

Bhimachar, B.S. and Venkataraman, G. (1952) A preliminary study of the fish populations along the Malabar coast. Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences XVII, no. 6.Google Scholar
Carpenter, K.E., Harrison, P.L., Hodgson, G., Alsaffar, A.H. and Alhazeem, S.H. (1997) The corals and coral reef fishes of Kuwait. Safat, Kuwait: Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, 166 pp.Google Scholar
Cuvier, G. and Valenciennes, A. (1837) Histoire naturelle de poissons. Tome douzieme. Suite du livre quatorzieme. Gobioides. Livre quinzieme. Acanthopterygiens a pectorals pédiculées. Volume 12. Paris, France: Levrault, 507 pp.Google Scholar
Day, F. (1876) The fishes of India; being a natural history of the fishes known to inhabit the seas and freshwaters of India, Burma, and Ceylon with descriptions of the subclasses, orders, families, genera and species. London: Quaritch, Part 2, 169–368, B.Google Scholar
Greenfield, D.W. (2006) Two new toadfish genera (Teleostei: Batrachoididae). Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, Series 4 57, 945–954.Google Scholar
Greenfield, D.W., Winterbottom, R. and Collette, B.B. (2008) Review of the toadfish genera (Teleostei: Batrachoididae). Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, Series 4 59, 665–710.Google Scholar
Hutchins, J.B. (1981) Nomenclatural status of the toadfishes of India. Copeia 1981, 336–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutchins, J.B. (1984) Batrachoididae. Fischer, W. and Bianchi, G. (eds) FAO Species Identification sheets for Fishery Purposes. Western Indian Ocean (Fish in Area 51). Volume I. Italy: FAO, Rome, 4 pp. (un-numbered).Google Scholar
Linnaeus, C. (1758) Systema naturae. Ed. 10. Tomus 1.l. Salvii, Holmiae.Google Scholar
Menon, A.G.K. (1963) Taxonomy of the Indian frog-fishes (Family Batrachoididae). LABDEAV, J.S.T., Kanpur, 1, 2 pp. (un-numbered).Google Scholar
Nagabhushanam, A.K. and Rama Rao, K.V. (1970) A review of the taxonomy of the Indian frog-fishes (Family Batrachoididae). Journal of Bombay Natural History Society 67, 339–344.Google Scholar
Randall, J.E. (1995) Coastal fishes of Oman. Honolulu, Hawaii, USA: University of Hawaii Press, 389 pp.Google Scholar
Smith, J.L.B. (1949) The sea fishes of South Africa. Annals and Magazine of Natural History Series 11 13, 793–821.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Figure 0

Table 1.Morphometric measures of Colletteichthys dussumieri (in mm, mean ± standard deviation) from estuarine waters of India.

Figure 1

Table 2.Comparison of selected meristics and proportional measurements of Colletteichthys dussumieri from the Cochin Estuary with the holotype (Greenfield, 2006).