Article

Ophichthys desilvai, a poorly known synbranchid eel from Sri Lanka (Teleostei: Synbranchidae)

DOI:10.23788/IEF-1139
Authors:
Ralf Britz at Senckenberg Natural History Collections Dresden
Ralf Britz
  • Senckenberg Natural History Collections Dresden
Hiranya Sudasinghe at Universität Bern
Hiranya Sudasinghe
Dan Bribiesca Sykes at Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems
Dan Bribiesca Sykes
Tharindu Ranasinghe at Butterfly Conservation Society of Sri Lanka
Tharindu Ranasinghe
  • Butterfly Conservation Society of Sri Lanka
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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 puta-tively 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.

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... The swamp eel genus Ophichthys Swainson, 1839 includes synbranchid eels (Synbranchiformes, Synbranchidae), previously placed in the catch-all genus "Monopterus", that exhibit scales on the body, a pair of suprabranchial pouches, and a reduced gill-arch skeleton in which several elements are missing (Britz et al. 2020). Following Britz et al. (2020), Ophichthys contains five species, including O. cuchia (Hamilton, 1822), O. fossorius (Nair, 1952), O. indicus (Silas & Dawson, 1961), O. ...
... The swamp eel genus Ophichthys Swainson, 1839 includes synbranchid eels (Synbranchiformes, Synbranchidae), previously placed in the catch-all genus "Monopterus", that exhibit scales on the body, a pair of suprabranchial pouches, and a reduced gill-arch skeleton in which several elements are missing (Britz et al. 2020). Following Britz et al. (2020), Ophichthys contains five species, including O. cuchia (Hamilton, 1822), O. fossorius (Nair, 1952), O. indicus (Silas & Dawson, 1961), O. ...
... desilvai (Bailey & Gans, 1998), and O. ichthyophoides (Britz, Lalremsanga, Lalrotluanga & Lalramliana, 2011), and likely also O. hodgarti (Chaudhuri, 1913) (Britz et al. 2020(Britz et al. , 2021. ...
First record of the Gangetic Swamp Eel, Ophichthys cuchia (Hamilton, 1822) (Teleostei: Synbranchidae), from Texas (USA) based on museum vouchered material, and confirmation of a second established non-native population in the USA
Article
Full-text available
  • May 2022
The native range of Ophichthys cuchia includes part of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, and Nepal. Ophichthys cuchia has also been collected within six states in the USA (Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania) and an established invasive population exists in New Orleans (Louisiana). We provide the first record of O. cuchia from Texas and the second report of an established non-native population in the USA based on 26 museum vouchered specimens collected from a series of urban ponds within the Houston metro area (Fort Bend Co.).
... In their revision of the family, Rosen and Greenwood (1976) recognized two subfamilies, the widespread Synbranchinae and the monotypic Macrotreminae endemic to Thailand and the Malay peninsula. Synbranchinae is divided into six genera with Monopterus, Ophichthys, Rakthamichthys and Typhlosynbranchus restricted to the Old World, Synbranchus restricted to the New, and Ophisternon in both (Berra, 2007;Britz et al., 2020a;2020b). Fig. 1 only), both species described from Suriname by Bloch (1795). from the Yucatán, and O. aenigmaticum, native to Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Cuba (Hubbs, 1938;Perdices et al., 2005). ...
... The classification of the genus Monopterus has been greatly modified based on the osteology and COI [12,44]. In this study, based on the whole mitogenome sequence, the phylogenetic relationships of four genera of Synbranchidae were confirmed, which were generally consistent with the results based on the morphological characteristics and COI [12]. ...
The Complete Mitochondrial Genome of One Breeding Strain of Asian Swamp Eel (Monopterus albus, Zuiew 1793) Using PacBio and Illumina Sequencing Technologies and Phylogenetic Analysis in Synbranchiformes
Article
Full-text available
  • Oct 2021
Asian swamp eel (Monopterus albus, Zuiew 1793) is a commercially important fish due to its nutritional value in Eastern and Southeastern Asia. One local strain of M. albus distributed in the Jianghan Plain of China has been subjected to a selection breeding program because of its preferred body color and superiority of growth and fecundity. Some members of the genus Monopterus have been reclassified into other genera recently. These classifications require further phylogenetic analyses. In this study, the complete mitochondrial genomes of the breeds of M. albus were decoded using both PacBio and Illumina sequencing technologies, then phylogenetic analyses were carried out, including sampling of M. albus at five different sites and 14 species of Synbranchiformes with complete mitochondrial genomes. The total length of the mitogenome is 16,621 bp, which is one nucleotide shorter than that of four mitogenomes of M. albus sampled from four provinces in China, as well as one with an unknown sampling site. The gene content, gene order, and overall base compositions are almost identical to the five reported ones. The results of maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference analyses of the complete mitochondrial genome and 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs) were consistent. The phylogenetic trees indicated that the selecting breed formed the deepest branch in the clade of all Asian swamp eels, confirmed the phylogenetic relationships of four genera of the family Synbranchidae, also providing systematic phylogenetic relationships for the order Synbranchiformes. The divergence time analyses showed that all Asian swamp eels diverged about 0.49 million years ago (MYA) and their common ancestor split from other species about 45.96 MYA in the middle of the Miocene epoch. Altogether, the complete mitogenome of this breed of M. albus would serve as an important dataset for germplasm identification and breeding programs for this species, in addition to providing great help in identifying the phylogenetic relationships of the order Synbranchiformes.
... Currently, this family consist of 26 valid species, and are unique among teleosts by lacking both paired, median fins and caudal fin, sometimes rudimentary or absent in some species (Rosen & Greenwood, 1976;Britz et al. 2021). Except for species of genus Ophichthys, all members of the family Synbranchidae are devoid of scales and have a highly vascularized pharynx to breathe air (Britz et al. 2020;Das, 1946;Samuel, 1963;Rosen & Greenwood, 1976). Some synbranchids have reduced eye or blind with a complete lack of skin pigment on the body (Britz et al. 2021). ...
Rakthamichthys mumba, a new species of Hypogean eel (Teleostei: Synbranchidae) from Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Article
Rakthamichthys mumba, a new species of synbranchid, hypogean, eel is described from Mumbai City, Maharashtra, India, based on morphological and genetic analysis. It differs from all other species of the genus Rakthamichthys by a combination of characters viz., absence of eyes, jaws equal in forward extent, gill aperture crescentric shaped, cephalic-lateralis system distinct with prominent cephalic pores and a vertebral count of 164 (80-83 preanal + 81-84 caudal vertebrae). The new species differs from a pair-wise sequence of 21.6-22.8% in the COI gene sequence from other members of the genus Rakthamichthys.
The National Red List of Sri Lanka: Assessment of the Threat Status of the Freshwater Fishes of Sri Lanka 2020
Technical Report
Full-text available
  • Feb 2020
A total of 61 endemic species were assessed. Of these, 12 point endemic species were listed as Critically Endangered (CR); 24 range-restricted species were Endangered (EN); and nine species were Vulnerable (VU). In addition, five species were Near Threatened (NT); two were listed as Data Deficient (DD); and the remaining were listed as Least Concern (LC). This means that 74% — nearly three quarters — of the freshwater fish endemic to Sri Lanka were found to be Threatened with extinction. Thirty-six native species were also assessed and of these, only eight species were listed as Threatened.
Schistura madhavai, a new species of hill-stream loach from Sri Lanka, with redescription of S. notostigma (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae)
Article
  • Aug 2017
Schistura madhavai, new species, is described from Suriyakanda, Sri Lanka. It is distinguished from all other species of Schistura in the peninsula of India and Sri Lanka by the combination of the following characters: 8–9 wide, brown postdorsal bars separated by narrow, white interspaces; width of interspaces ¼–⅓ times width of bars; black bar at caudal-fin base wider than interspaces on the body; incomplete lateral line, ending beneath dorsal-fin base; absence of an axillary pelvic lobe; adpressed pelvic fin just reaching anus; origin of the pelvic fin on a vertical through the last unbranched dorsal-fin ray. Schistura notostigma, the only other Sri Lankan species of Schistura, is redescribed. It can be distinguished from all other species of Schistura in the peninsula of India and Sri Lanka by the combination of the following characters: 6–7 wide, brown postdorsal bars; width of interspaces ½–1 times width of bars; complete, black bar at caudal-fin base narrower than width of interspaces between bars on body; emarginate caudal fin; incomplete lateral line ending beneath dorsal-fin base; adpressed pelvic fin surpassing anus; and origin of pelvic fin beneath first branched dorsal-fin ray. Schistura madhavai is separated from S. notostigma by an uncorrected pairwise distance of 3.0–3.8% for the 16S rRNA gene fragment.
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