Caesio caerulaurea Lacepede, 1801

Ray, Dipanjan & Mohapatra, Anil, 2017, First report of Fusilier Fish family Caesionidae (Perciformes) from Northern part of East coast of India, Records of the Zoological Survey of India 117 (3), pp. 295-297 : 295-296

Caesio caerulaurea Lacepede, 1801

Materials examined: MARC /ZSI/F1598, 2 Specimens, 135-172mm, 27.12.10, Digha Mohana & MARC /ZSI/ F2603, 1 Specimen, 01.08.2012, Digha Mohana .

Characters: Body elongated and moderately compressed with a small mouth, protrusible with small conical teeth in jaw, vomer and palatine. Eyes large having diameter longer than snout; a longitudinal axis through tip of snout to middle of caudal fin passing through centre of eye. Maxilla reaches anterior part of eye, posterior end of maxilla blunt; single postmaxillary process. Lateral line scales 60-61; scale rows above lateral line 9, below lateral line 16-17, Table 1. Morphometric comparison between Caesio caerulaurea Lacepede, 1801 , Caesio xanthonota Bleeker, 1853 and Pterocaesio tessellate Carpenter, 1987

Characters Caesio caerulaurea Caesio xanthonota Pterocaesio tessellate Lacepede, 1801 (n=3) Bleeker, 1853 (n=2) Carpenter, 1987 (n=1)

Total length 135-172mm 195-215mm 136mm

Body depth in SL 3-3.17 2.71-2.86 3.61

Head length in SL 3.3-3.56 3.19-3.3 3.33

Eye diameter in SL 12.27-13.75 10.42-9.04 17.57

Snout in SL 13.5-14.4 12.05-12.37 15.29

Eye diameter in HL 3.5-4.1 2.83-3.15 5.07

Snout in HL 3.9-4.5 3.7-4.28 4.58

predorsal scales 24-25, scale rows on cheek 4. Gill rakers 25- 26+9=34-35. A V-shaped scale less area present anteriorly at midline intruding between the supratemporal band of scales. Dorsal and anal fins scaled; horizontal scale rows on spinous portion of dorsal fin; caudal fin deeply forked.

Colour: Upper part of body bluish, lower part whitish. A yellow stripes runs above the eye and lateral line to caudal peduncle (Figure 1). Caudal fin lobes with black median streaks, bordered in white. Pectoral, ventral and anal fin whitish; pectoral fin axil black. Dorsal fin pale blue with dark distal margin; anal fin whitish.

Distribution: Widely distributed in tropical Indo-West Pacific, from East Africa to Red Sea, Samoa (except Persian Gulf); north to southern Japan and south to Mauritius and New Caledonia ( Carpenter, 1988). In Indian coastal waters this species previously reported from Andhra Pradesh ( Barman et al., 2004); Andaman and Nicobar Island ( Rajan et al., 2013); Maharatra ( Barman et al., 2012); Karnataka ( Barman et al., 2013); Lakshadweep ( Rao, 1991).

Figure 1. Caesio caerulaurea Lacepede, 1801