Tomato Grouper

Tomato Grouper

Material examined

EBRC /ZSI/F 13618, 02 ex., 230.2–240 mm SL, Digha fish landing centre, Purba Medinipur, West Bengal, Ray and party, 06/ii/2022 .

Diagnostic characters

D: IX+16; A: III+9; P: 18; V: I+5; C: 18 GR: 23; LL: 119. Body robust, deep and slightly compressed. Head large and its dorsal profile straight, interorbital space slightly convex, mouth oblique, lower jaw longer than upper jaw, nape convex. Teeth villiform, present in bands on jaws, a pair of canine teeth present in front of on both jaws, small teeth present on vomer and palatine. Preopercle

margin serrated opercle with flat spines; maxilla cross the posterior margin of eye. Pelvic fin extent up to the anus, caudal fin rounded ( Figure 2 View Figure 2 ).

Colour

Vibrant reddish brown with numerous whitish spots on body; whitish network like patterns present on head

Distribution

Indo-West Pacific: East Africa, South Africa, Socotra, Madagascar and Mascarenes east to Marshall Islands, Samoa and Tonga, north to Japan, south to Western Australia and New Caledonia ( Froese and Pauly, 2022). From Indian coast this species was reported from Andaman and Nicobar Island ( Dhandapani and Mishra, 1998; Rao et al., 2000; Rajan et al., 2017), Odisha ( Behera et al., 2015), Andhra Pradesh ( Kandula et al., 2015), Tamil Nadu ( Mishra and Krishnan, 2003; Anrose et al., 2007; Ramesh et al., 2008; Sluka and Lazarus, 2010; Barman et al., 2011), Kerala ( Bineesh et al., 2014; Basheer et al., 2017), Karnataka ( Sluka and Lazarus, 2010) and Lakshadweep ( Jones and Kumaran, 1959; Jones, 1969; Jones and Kumaran, 1980). Present study reports this species from West Bengal coast for the first time which indicates of its distribution throughout the east cost of India.