New distributional record of four Dragonet species (Perciformes: Callionymidae) from Odisha coast, India with comments on occurrence of other Callionymus species in Indian waters

Abstract

The present paper reports four uncommon fish species of dragonets of the family Callionymidae<em> viz. Callionymus filamentosus </em>Valenciennes, 1837, <em>C. hindsii </em>Richardson, 1844, <em>C. margaretae </em>Regan, 1905 and <em>C. recurvispinis </em>(Li 1966) for the first time from Odisha coast, India. Diagnosis, morphometric and meristic characters of the recorded species are provided herein. The records of <em>Callionymus</em> species in Indian waters are discussed. It is concluded that only 15 species of the genus <em>Callionymus </em>are occurring in India, while reports of <em>C. belcheri</em>, <em>C. japonicus</em>,<em> C. kaianus</em> and <em>C. melanopterus </em>are erroneous.