Marine Biodiversity Records, page 1 of 2. # Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 2013 doi:10.1017/S1755267213000705; Vol.

6; e94; 2013 Published online

First record of the marbled electric ray, Torpedo sinuspersici off Gujarat, north-west coast of India
jigneshkumar trivedi and kauresh d. vachhrajani
Marine Biology Laboratory, Division of Environment and Toxicology, Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara, India

One female specimen of Torpedo sinuspersici was collected from the trawl catch along the Saurashtra coast of Junagadh district, Gujarat, India. Although a total 486 species of marine sh have been identied so far from the State, the present paper describes the rst record of T. sinuspersici from the coast of Gujarat State of India.

Keywords: Torpedo sinuspersici, Saurashtra coast, Gujarat, India, electric ray sh

Submitted 18 March 2013; accepted 10 July 2013

INTRODUCTION

Studies on the diversity and distribution of local fauna and ora are of great importance and provide suitable background information as the basis for best conservation policies. Gujarat being at the western proximity of India is an important geographical location with the longest coastline in the country. A total of 486 species of marine sh have been identied so far from Gujarat (Barman et al., 2000). In the sh fauna of the State, order Torpediniformes is represented by only one family Narcinidae and two species namely Narcine timlei (Bloch & Schneider, 1801) and Narcine brunnea (Annandale, 1909) (GEC, 1996; Subba Rao & Sastry, 2005). The marbled electric ray Torpedo sinuspersici Olfers, 1831 belonging to the family Torpedinidae has been recorded for the rst time from Gujarat waters.
MATERIALS AND METHODS

Genus Torpedo Houttuyn, 1764 Torpedo sinuspersici Olfers, 1831 (Figure 1)

type material
Body measurement of one female specimen of Torpedo sinuspersici measuring 21.5 cm total length collected from Gujarat coast. Measurements of different body parts are given in percentage with reference to total body length. Total length: 21.5 cm; width of the disc, 12 cm (55.81%); snout to vent length, 11.8 cm (54.88%); length of 1st dorsal n, 1.5 cm (6.97%); height of the 1st dorsal n, 1.8 cm (8.37); length of 2nd dorsal n, 1.0 cm (4.65%); height of the 2nd dorsal n, 1.5 cm (6.97%); length of the caudal n, 3.7 cm (17.20%); width of the caudal n, 3.5 cm (16.27%); diameter of eyes, 0.3 cm (1.39%); diameter of spiracles, 0.9 cm (4.18%).

During the survey of the Saurashtra coast for benthic faunal studies, one specimen of Torpedo sinuspersici was collected from the trawl catch near Dhamlej Village (20046 29 N 70036 19 E) of the Junagadh district. The specimen was rst preserved in 10% formalin and then it was transferred to 70% alcohol. The specimen was identied using different identication keys and monographs (Reeve et al., 2011; www.biosearch.in) and deposited in the Zoology Museum, Department of Zoology, The M.S. University of Baroda (ZL-PS-CH-11).

diagnosis
Body is soft and abby and brown in colour with light coloured vermiculated reticulations or blotches; ventral side is white in colour, head and pectoral ns form disc-like shape which comprises 50 to 60% of total body length; skin is smooth and devoid of scales; paired kidney shape electric organs are visible beneath the skin; eyes small, spiracles are situated just behind the eyes, small tentacles are present around spiracles; mouth is ventrally located and broadly arched with small, sharp and cusp teeth; ve pairs of small gills are located under the disc; tail is short and strong; two dorsal ns are located on the proximal part of tail with rounded apex; rst dorsal n is larger than second; the caudal n is triangular in shape with blunt corners.

RESULTS

systematics
Order TORPEDINIFORMES Family TORPEDINIDAE Bonaparte, 1838
Corresponding author: K.D. Vachhrajani Email: kauresh@gmail.com

remarks
Torpedo sinuspersici has widespread distribution in the western Indian Ocean. Except for the western region the species has been reported from the Red Sea and Arabian Sea
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jigneshkumar trivedi and kauresh d. vachhrajani

REFERENCES
Anonymous (2008) Marbled electric ray, Torpedo sinuspersici noticed in Malabar coast. CMFRI News Letter 118, 8. Barman R.P., Mukherjee P. and Kar S. (2000) Marine and estuarine shes. Fauna of Gujarat, State Fauna Series, Zoological Survey of India 8, 311411. Biswas S.S., Mishra S.S., Das N.P.I., Nayak L., Selvanayagam M. and Satpathy K.K. (2012) First record of eleven reef inhabiting shes from Tamil Nadu coast of India, Bay of Bengal. Proceedings of the Zoological Society, India 65, 105113. Carpenter K.E., Krupp F., Jones D.A. and Zajonz U. (1997) Living marine resources of Kuwait, eastern Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. In De Angelis N., Carpenter K.E. and Niem V. (eds) FAO species identication eld guide for shery purposes: the living marine resources of Kuwait, eastern Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Rome: FAO, 293 pp. De Carvalho M.R., Stehmann M.F.W. and Manilo L.G. (2002) Torpedo adenensis, a new species of electric ray from the Gulf of Aden, with comments on nominal species of torpedo from the western Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, and adjacent areas (Chondrichthyes: Torpediniformes: Torpedinidae). American Museum Novitates 3369, 134. GEC (1996) Biological diversity of Gujarat: current knowledge. Vadodara, India: Gujarat Ecology Commission, 289 pp.
Fig. 1. Torpedo sinuspersici, adult female off Gujarat, India: (A) dorsal view; (B) ventral view.

(de Carvalho et al., 2002), and Persian Gulf (Carpenter et al., 1997). In India the species has a very patchy distribution. Previously the species has been reported from Malabar (Anonymous, 2008) on the western coast of India, while from the east coast the species was reported from Visakhapatnam (Sujatha, 2002) and Tamil Nadu (Biswas et al., 2012). The present report forms the rst record of Torpedo sinuspersici from the coast of Gujarat State. The species has low commercial value and shermen usually discard the species from their catch. The species is amongst the rare and data decient sh of the world. The present report provides information on its rst record from the Gujarat coast and extends its distributional range.

Reeve A.J., Reeve M.K., Al- Mamari T., Al-Shuaily S. and Henderson A.C. (2011) A eld guide to the elasmobranchs of south-east Arabia. Shark Project Oman, 38 pp. Subba Rao N.V. and Sastry D.R.K. (2005) Fauna of Marine National Park, Gulf of Kutch (Gujarat): an overview. Conservation Area Series 23, 179. and Sujatha K. (2002) Batoid shes off Visakhapatnam, north-east coast of India. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India 44, 155 162.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors thank Dr P.C. Mankodi for conrming the species identication and Mr Ravi Vasava and Mr Vishal Pankhania for their assistance in eld surveys.

Correspondence should be addressed to: K.D. Vachhrajani Division of Environment and Toxicology Department of Zoology Faculty of Science The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda Vadodara-390002, Gujarat, India email: kauresh@gmail.com