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 3. Comparison of meristic characters among Ophidion species in Indo – Pacific region.

Character	O. muraenolepis	O. smithi	O. asiro	O. exul
References for O. muraenolepis: Randall (2007), Nielsen (1997), and this study; O. smithi: Fricke et al. (2022), Ray and Mohapatra (2022), Augustina et al. (2025), and this study; O. asiro: Chen and Shao (1991); O. exul: Robins (1991).
Dorsal fin rays	140–178	98–108	146–155	140–152
Anal fin rays	111–153	95–105	112–125	118–131
Pectoral fin rays	22–28	21–22	22–23	21–24
Pelvic fin rays	2	2	2	2
Caudal fin rays	9–10	8–10	9	9
Developed gill rakers	4	3–7	4	4
Vertebrae	70–73	56–60	64–65	69–72