Journal Article
Ophichthys desilvai, a poorly known synbranchid eel from Sri Lanka (Teleostei: Synbranchidae)
Britz, R., Sudasinghe, H., Sykes, D. and Tharindu Ranasinghe, R.H.
Record Number:
4700
Year:
2020
Journal:
Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters
Pages:
1-16
Volume:
30
Abstract:
The endemic Sri Lankan synbranchid ‘Monopterus’ desilvai is redescribed based on additional material. In life,
individuals have a maroon background colour with numerous dark brown blotches. They breathe air, which
is stored in paired suprabranchial pouches. The head skeleton of M. desilvai is described in detail. This species
shares with M. cuchia, M. indicus, M. fossorius, M. ichthyophoides, M. rongsaw, M. luticolus, and M. boueti derived
and unique modifications of the gill arch skeleton: ceratobranchial 1 is spatially removed from hypobranchial 1
and aligned with hypo- and ceratobranchial 2, leading to a separation of the anterior from the posterior gill arch
skeleton. It shares with M. cuchia, M. indicus, M. fossorius, and M. ichthyophoides an even further derived gill arch
skeleton, in which epibranchial 1, the interarcual bone and pharyngobranchial 2 are absent, modifications putatively
related to the evolution of paired suprabranchial pouches in these species. Based on these shared derived
characters the group comprising M. cuchia, M. indicus, M. fossorius, M. ichthyophoides and M. desilvai, is recognized
as a monophyletic unit for which the oldest available generic name is Ophichthys Swainson.
Times Cited:
6
Relevent Species:
Typhlosynbranchus boueti Pellegrin 1922Rakthamichthys digressus (Gopi 2002) Britz, Dahanukar, Standing, Philip, Kumar and Raghavan 2020Rakthamichthys roseni (Bailey and Gans 1998) Britz, Dahanukar, Standing, Philip, Kumar and Raghavan 2020Rakthamichthys indicus (Eapen 1963) Britz, Dahanukar, Standing, Philip, Kumar, and Raghavan 2020Rakthamichthys rongsaw (Britz, Sykes, Gower and Kamei 2018) Britz, Dahanukar, Standing, Philip, Kumar and Raghavan 2020Typhlosynbranchus luticolus (Britz, Doherty-Bone, Kouete, Sykes and Gower 2016) Britz, Dahanukar, Standing, Philip, Kumar and Raghavan 2020