Meticulous Taxonomic Evidence and Molecular Confirmation of Sphyraena forsteri Cuvier, 1829 (Carangiformes: Sphyraenidae) from the Southeast coast of India

Bigeye barracuda is a commercially valued species as food and game fish in the Indo-Pacific region. The taxonomic details of bigeye barracuda Sphyraena forsteri Cuvier, 1829 is poorly reported in the literature from Indian waters. The current taxonomic study identifies the S. forsteri based on different sizes of the specimens ranging from 255 to 376 mm total length and 83–271 g weight collected from three different landing stations along the Southeast coast of India. Totally, forty-five specimens were examined which include 21 males (46.67%) and 24 females (53.33%). Sphyraena forsteri is diagnosed with enlarged eyes; covered with very tiny cycloid scales all over the body; 101–120 lateral line scales; cheek scales 5–6.5; seven branchiostegal rays. Sphyraena forsteri differs from its congeners by having the gill raker counts; upper limb rough with tiny bony setae, 10–20 small tubercle spines on the first-gill arch (in lower limb) uniformly arranged with 4 to 5 bony setae in a single group with one large spine, gill raker absent. The genetic confirmation of S. forsteri was investigated using 668 bp sequences of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene. The species S. forsteri formed a stoutly supported clade against the five other congeneric species within the same family Sphyraenidae. This study provides a better taxonomic interpretation of S. forsteri with the molecular and combination of comprehensive morphological with detailed description of scale, otolith, vertebral characters of specimens from the Southeast coast of India.