First record of Ophidion muraenolepis (Actinopterygii, Ophidiiformes, Ophidiidae) from the Laccadive Sea, western Indian Ocean, with taxonomic notes Author Jayakumar, Teena T. K. 0000-0002-6424-3357 ICAR-National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources, Lucknow, India Author Fricke, Ronald 0000-0003-1476-6990 Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany Author Kumar, T. T. Ajith ICAR-National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources, Lucknow, India Author Sarkar, Uttam Kumar 0000-0001-8166-4375 ICAR-National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources, Lucknow, India text Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 2025 2025-07-18 55 161 166 journal article 311164 10.3897/aiep.55.155497 a52fc6cd-344e-41bd-88bd-852d5bdc6278 686FBE00-19E9-4B94-9183-1CCD8C0CAB60

Table 2. Meristic characters of Ophidion muraenolepis (OPHOMUR. 1–4 / NBFGR) and Ophidion smithi (OPHOSMI. 1–2 / NBFGR) compared with previous study.

Character	Ophidion muraenolepis			O. smithi
	This study	Nielsen 1997	Randall 2007	This study
	n = 4	n = 1	n unspecified	n = 2
Dorsal fin rays	140–178	151	147–167	98–104
Anal fin rays	126–153	111	114–131	96–100
Pectoral fin rays	22–28	23	22–27	20–22
Pelvic fin rays	2	2	2	2
Caudal fin rays	9–10	10	—	10
Developed gill rakers	4	4	4	5
Vertebrae	72–73	70	70–73	58–60