A note on the occurrence of reef inhabiting, red-bellied yellow tail fusilier, Caesio cuning from outside its known geographical array

Abstract

The reef inhabiting fusilier, Caesio cuning, characterized by pinkish abdomen and yellow caudal fin exhibits shoaling behaviour and is known to be geographically distributed from the Gulf of Mannar to the Vanuatu Islands in the South Pacific. The present observation is evidence for the first record of this species off Goa, west coast of India, to be outside its known geographical array. The bay-estuarine and coastal region of Goa influenced by south-west monsoon receives nutrient-rich water during upwelling. Hence the region is highly productive and supports diverse marine assemblages. Moreover, the present observation reveals very low numbers (N=4) of this species in the light of the trawl hauls (N=92) with a core sampling effort of 146 hours, wherein it was found to occur only in two hauls. The paper also provides detailed insight into the description of C. cuning from this region with orthodox taxonomic methods including morphometry and meristic counts.