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1 2 3 New Record of Neobythites steatiticus Alcock, 1894 from the Marine Waters of Iraq 4 5 Laith A. Jawad1*, Mustafa A. Al-Mukhtar2, Abbas J. Al-Faisal2, Tariq Hammed2 6 1 7 8 2 9 * Manukau, Auckland, New Zealand Marine Science Centre, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq Correspondence author: [email protected] 10 11 Abstract: The first record of Neobythites steatiticus in the Iraqi waters of the 12 Arabian Gulf is reported based on a single specimen 370 mm in total length, 13 obtained from south of Faw City Peninsula, Basrah, Iraq, Arabian Gulf. This 14 account represents the northernmost range extension of this species in the north 15 of the Indian Ocean. The specimen is larger than the type specimen of the 16 species and larger than other specimen obtained from other locations and it is 17 considered a record size for this species. 18 19 Key words: New record; new range extension; Ophidiidae; Basrah; Arabian 20 Gulf 21 22 1 Introduction 23 The family Ophidiidae comprises 261 valid species, into four sub-families with 24 Neobythitinae being the largest with 185 valid species (Eschmeyer and Fong, 25 2014). This species, Neobythites steatiticus, (Alcock, 1894) is present in the 26 Indian Ocean from the Persian Gulf to the Bay of Bengal (Froese and Pauly, 27 2014). In spite of the several publication that appeared on the marine fish fauna 28 of Iraq during the last few decades (Khalaf 1961; Mahdi 1971; Al-Daham 1982; 29 Al-Hassan and Al-Badri 1986; Al-Hassan and Miller 1987; Hussain et al. 1988), 1 30 the marine ichthyofauna is still far away from being fully investigated and 31 documented and huge amount of taxonomic work is waiting to be done (Jawad 32 2012). Low fishing sampling effort along the continental slope in the Arabian 33 Sea might be the reason for the lack of information on the deep-water fish 34 communities in the Arabian Gulf (Nielsen, 2002). Moreover, such delay in the 35 progress of ichthyological investigation in the Iraqi marine waters is mainly due 36 to the political unrest in the area.Recently, several programs have been started 37 to survey the Iraqi waters of the Arabian Gulf in order to study the fish 38 biodiversity of this area and aiming to build up a list of species that present in 39 the northwest part of the Arabian Gulf. 40 The Neobythites steatiticus was first described by Alcock in 1894 from Bay of 41 Bengal. Since then it has been reported from different localities world-wide 42 (Nielsen, 2002; Uiblein and Nielsen, 2005; Eschmeyer and Fong, 2014). 43 This study reports the occurrence of N. steatiticus in the Arabian Gulf coasts of 44 Iraq. This species is rare, but it is known from the Arabian Gulf area (Nielsen et 45 al., 1999; Nielsen, 2002; Uiblein and Nielsen, 2005) and the present record 46 represents the first record to the Iraqi marine waters. 47 48 2 Materials and methods 49 the Neobythites steatiticus specimen was caught on 4th February 2014, near the 50 southern coast of Faw City Peninsula, Iraq, Arabian Gulf (latitude : 29˚49ˊ 51 46.01″ N ; longitude : 48˚ 45 ˊ 53.17″ E) by fishermen using 240 × 10 m 52 drifting gill nets of 35 × 35 mm mesh size. This specimen was measured with 53 dial callipers to the nearest 0.1 mm. The fishermen usually make two to three 54 hauls per hour. The morphometric and meristic details were recorded according 55 to Fischer and Bianch (1984). The specimen is then fixed in 10% formaldehyde 56 solution and then preserved in 70% ethanol for deposit in the ichthyological 2 57 collection of the Marine Science Centre, University of Basrah, Iraq (Cat. No. 58 MRSCI00012). 59 3 Results 60 The specimen of N. steatiticus is identical to the general description of this 61 species (Neilson, 1995) with standard length of 385 mm (Table1, Figure 1). 62 Table 1. Morphometric and meristic characters of Neobythites steatiticus collected from the Arabian Gulf coasts of Iraq (TL: Total Length ; HL: Head Length; SL : Standard Length). 63 64 Morphometric characters Present address 370 Total length (mm) Holotype Nielson, 2002 n = 10 - - Standard length (% in TL) 350 (94.6) 129 113-115 Head length (% in SL) 83(39.5) (28) (25.5-31.0) Eye diameter (% in HL) 18(3.6) 5.1 4.8-5.9 Predorsal fin length (% in SL) 17.7(8.4) (24.5) (24.5-28.0) Pelvic fin length (% in SL) 59(28) (14) (13.5-17) Preanus length (% in SL) 163(78) (40) (40-46) Dorsal fin rays 90 88 88-93 Anal fin rays 74 75 72-76 Pectoral fin rays 25 24 24-27 Pseudobranchial filaments 2-4 2/3 2-4 Long rakers on anterior gill arch 12 12 11-12 Caudal fin ray 8 8 8 Meristic characters 65 66 3 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 Figure 1. The specimen of Neobythites steatiticus (370 mm Total length) caught 78 the Marine Waters of Iraq. 79 80 It is characterised by the following set of characters: teeth are granular to 81 needle-like with vomer tooth bended in shape; dorsal fin is distinguished with 82 the presence of ocellus located posterior to anus; anal fin is black at the middle 83 with white strip at both distal and proximal ends; there are 3-4 faint broad dark 84 vertical bars indistinct on body. 85 86 The other characters include: body robust with large and heavy head. 87 Operculum with large spine. Snout bluntly pointed, equal in length to eye and 88 extends over the mouth. Eyes are large with orbital folds. Large nostrils, the 89 anterior is a small tube near the tipoff the snout, the posterior with large 90 foramen. Posterior margin of preopercle without spines Mouth is large with 91 maxillary extending behind the posterior border of the orbit. There are 1-3 short 92 rakers on the anterior gill arch and 2-4 long rakers on upper branch, one long 93 raker in angle. The lower branch has 7-9 long, 6-9 short rakers and 2-4 long 94 pseudobranchial filaments. Head, body, base of dorsal and pectoral fins covered 95 with small scales. Ventral fin nearly reaches base to anal fin. Lateral line 4 96 indistinct. Pectoral fins with large fleshy scaly base reach vertical at anal fin 97 origin. 98 99 100 4 Discussion 101 The standard length of the present study (350 mm) is larger than the type 102 specimen obtained from Bay of Bengal by Alcock (1894) (129 mm), larger than 103 that reported by Nielson (2002), but the meristic characters fall within the range 104 given by Nielson (2002) and larger than any specimens reported by Neilson 105 (1995) and by Uiblein and Nielsen (2005). This size makes our specimen is the 106 largest size ever recorded for this species. 107 108 The marine environment of the north part of the Arabian Gulf and in particular 109 the environment of the Iraqi marine waters is different from that in the 110 remaining parts of the gulf. Furthermore, it is even different from the 111 neighbouring Kuwaiti marine environment (Al-Yamani et al., 2004). The 112 environment of the Iraqi marine waters where the present species is obtained is 113 characterised in receiving freshwater flux from two main sources, the Shat al- 114 Arab River in the north east and oligihaline waters from the greater marsh area 115 at the northwest through Khor al-Zubair, a north western extension of the 116 Arabian Gulf. Such huge amount of water of different quality turns the 117 environment of the marine Iraqi waters from hypersaline to an estuarine one. 118 This amount of water has a local effect on the marine waters of Iraq and carries 119 nutrients and particulate organic matter to this area and considered important for 120 productivity of the northwestern Arabian Gulf (Hussain and Ahmed, 121 1999).Although the Kuwaiti marine environment is very close to the Iraqi one, 122 it differs from the former in several physical and chemical characteristics. 5 123 The coastal area of Kuwait is characterised in having sediment movement 124 which turns it into a depositional environment with its southern part is marked 125 by a narrow rocky tidal flat partially covered by sand and sandbars (Al-Kandari 126 et al., 2009, Al-Yamani and Saburova 2010, 2011). 127 128 The environment of the remaining parts of the gulf has a shallow depth and 129 restricted water exchange, it is the characterized by extreme sea-surface 130 temperatures (Riegl, 2001; Sheppard and Loughland, 2002), hyper-saline 131 conditions occur year-round (Reynolds, 1993) and a moderate to low primary 132 production found within the southern part of the gulf (Nezlin et al., 2007). The 133 majority of the southern and the western areas of the Gulf have a soft-sediment 134 habitats (John and George 2006). These mats can form an essential habitat and 135 food source for fish and other macrofauna (Al-Zaidan et al., 2006). 136 137 With such differences in the nature of the environment in the three parts of the 138 Arabian Gulf, it is difficult for most of the fish species to adapt for such big 139 changes in the habitats. So far the species in question is reported from the 140 southern Gulf (Nielsen, 1995) a habitat that is very different in its nature from 141 that of the northern part of the gulf in general and the Iraqi marine environment 142 in particular. It is characterized by extreme environmental conditions, with 143 physical extremes not observed in tropical reefs anywhere else in the world 144 (Sheppard et al., 1992; Coles, 2003; Riegl, 2003). Despite these conditions, fish 145 communities do develop in this area (Riegl, 1999; Burt et al., 2008), indicating 146 that a variety of fish fauna can survive at or above the elevated sea temperatures 147 predicted for much of the world in the coming decades (IPCC, 2007). 148 The present record of N. steatiticus from the Iraqi marine waters demonstrates 149 clearly that it can explore and inhabit the new environment far different from 6 150 what it uses to live in and indicating a significant range extension of its 151 previously known distribution. 152 153 In addition to fact that this species is rare (Neilson, 1995), the lack of previous 154 confirmed records of this species from the Iraqi marine waters may be due to 155 the lack of ichthyological surveys. It might reaches this destination using ballast 156 water from ships as the Arabian Gulf is considered to be one of the busiest 157 waterways in the world. Until further specimens of this species became turns up 158 and its biology becomes known, we will remain not know whether it has 159 established sustainable population in this region. 160 161 Acknowledgments 162 We would like to thank Marine Science Centre, Basrah University for giving us 163 the opportunity to study and publish on the presence of this species. 164 165 References 166 Alcock A.W., 1894, Natural history notes from H. M. Indian marine survey steamer, `Investigator,' 167 Commander C. F. Oldham, R. N., commanding. Series II, No. 9. An account of the deep sea 168 collection made during the season of 1892-93. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 62, 169- 169 184. 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 Al-Daham N.K., 1982, Ichthyofauna of Iraq and the Arab Gulf: A check-list. Basrah Natural History Publication 4, 1-102. Al-Hassan L.A.J., and Al-Badri, M.E.H., 1986, First record of some fishes from Khor al-Zubair, Khor Abdullah and Shatt al-Arab, Basrah, Iraq. 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