Carcharhinus cf. limbatus, Müller & Henle, 1839

Fernando, Daniel, Bown, Rosalind M. K., Tanna, Akshay, Gobiraj, Ramajeyam, Ralicki, Hannah, Jockusch, Elizabeth L., Ebert, David A., Jensen, Kirsten & Caira, Janine N., 2019, New insights into the identities of the elasmobranch fauna of Sri Lanka, Zootaxa 4585 (2), pp. 201-238 : 222

Carcharhinus cf. limbatus

( Figs. 4A , 14 E–H)

Two specimens of blacktip sharks were examined, one each from Point Pedro's Munai (SL-38) and Kottadi (SL-52) markets in the Northern Province. Following Naylor et al. (2012a), we refer to this species as Carcharhinus cf. limbatus in recognition of the fact that, despite their overall morphological similarity, the Indian and Pacific Oceandwelling form is molecularly distinct from the Atlantic-dwelling form of Carcharhinus limbatus (Müller & Henle) . The two specimens from Sri Lanka differed from one another by 4 bp and from our reference sequence of C. cf. limbatus from Australia (AU-26; JQ518616 ) by 3 bp.

This species is routinely referred to in Sri Lanka as C. limbatus (e.g., De Silva 1977, 1984 –1985, 2006, 2015; De Bruin et al. 1995; Joseph 1999). Use of the C. cf. limbatus designation for the form in Sri Lanka would serve as a reminder of the distinct nature of this form relative to the Atlantic form.

Figures

FIGURE 4. Neighbor-Joining trees of p-distances based on 1,044 bp of aligned NADH2 sequence data for individual selachian genera or groups of genera. Taxon names are followed by country, host specimen number (in parentheses), and GenBank number. Outgroup taxa used in each analysis were omitted from the individual trees. Scale bar values indicate substitutions per site. Specimens deposited in the Blue Resources Trust Ichthyology Collection are indicted by stars (see text for details). A. Carcharhinus and close relatives (Carcharhinidae). B. Rhizoprionodon (Carcharhinidae). C. Galeocerdidae. D. Hemigaleidae. E. Pseudotriakidae. F. Sphyrnidae. G. Iago (Triakidae).

FIGURE 14. Carcharhinus amblyrhyncoides (A–D) and C. cf. limbatus (E–H) (Carcharhinidae), and Rhizoprionodon acutus (I–J) and Rhizoprionodon oligolinx (K–L). A. Lateral view of female (SL-18). B. Ventral view of head of female (SL-18). C. Teeth of upper jaw of female (SL-18). D. Teeth of lower jaw of female (SL-18). E. Lateral view of immature female (SL- 52). F. Ventral view of head of immature female (SL-52). G. Teeth of upper jaw of immature female (SL-52). H. Teeth of lower jaw of immature female (SL-52). I. Lateral view of mature female (SL-21). J. Ventral view of head of mature female (SL-21). K. Lateral view of maturing male (SL-22). L. Ventral view of head of mature male (SL-53).