First Records of Two Species of Groupers, Cephalopholis nigripinnis and Epinephelus retouti (Perciformes: Epinephelidae) from India, with a Note on Epinephelids from Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Abstract

The groupers of the family Epinephelidae, earlier placed as a subfamily in Serranidae, are mostly reef dwellers and commercially important as food fish, game fish and aquarium curio as well. The family comprises more than 160 species in 16 genera in the world (Craig et al., 2011; Zhuang et al., 2013; Tucker et al., 2016). Juveniles of these fishes inhabit tidal pools and coastal waters; whereas adults live at depths of 10– 150 m. Owing to their size and value, the epinephelids attracted icthyologist’s eye since the fish faunal study began in Andamans. Day (1871) has recorded ten groupers from Andamans. By now, 54 species in 7 genera belonging to the family Epinephelidae have been recorded from the waters around Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Rajan et al. (2013) listed 47 species of epinephelids, but missed out Epinephelus summana, recorded by Day (1871), Epinephelus morrhua, listed by Rao (2009) and Cephalopholis polyspila, reported by Allen & Erdmann (2012). Further, Sachithanandam and Mohan (2014), Rajan (2015) and Rajan et al. (2016) reported four more species of the family Epinephelidae, viz., Cephalopholis aurantia, Epinephelus epistictus, E. heniochus and E. tukula, from Andamans. The present paper reports new record of two more grouper species, Cephalopholis nigripinnis and Epinephelus retouti, for the first time from Andaman and Nicobar Islands.