Resumen de A new record of a spot-fin porcupine fish, Diodon Hystrix Linnaeus, 1785 in the Hooghly-Matlah estuary of West Bengal, India
Dibakar Bhakta, Ranjan Kumar Manna, Archisman Ray, Sangeetha Mohanachandran Nair, Kavita Kumari, Srikanta Samanta, Basanta Kumar Das
The present communication is based on the report of a single specimen of spot-fin porcupine fish, Diodon hystrix Linnaeus, 1785 from the Hooghly-Matlah estuarine system which is a new record to the systems. The specimen was collected from a bag net catch during February 2021 at Fraserganj fishing areas of the lower stretch of Hooghly-Matlah estuarine systems, India. The size of the specimen was recorded as 280.13 mm in length, 235 g in weight, and big eyes with 18.23 mm in diameter. The fish specimen was also sequenced (barcoded) for a 655 bp region of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) gene and submitted to the GenBank with accession number MZ665467. Being a marine species, previously this species was reported from the trawl net catch of Bay of Bengal, West Bengal, India, but not from any estuarine environments including Hooghly-Matlah estuarine systems. Average salinity of 26.3 ± 0.87 ppt was recorded at the site of collection. This first confirmed record of D. hystrix from the Hooghly-Matlah estuary of West Bengal, India is based on both standards’ taxonomic keys-based identification as well as molecular characterization.
