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International Journal of Marine Science 2014, Vol.4, No.40: 1-5
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4
et al., 2010) and Gulf of Oman (Jawad et al.,
2012).The present record extends its range to the north,
to the Arabian Gulf coasts of Iraq where it considered
a new record for this area and for Iraq.
Comparison of the present specimens with those of
Jayabalan et al. (2010) (54-64 mm total length),
Golani et al. (2011) (75 mm total length) from the
Mediterranean Sea and Jawad et al. (2012) (62.9-74
mm total length), it is clear that the current specimens,
100 to 102 mm total length, are the highest observed
and it is consider new record size for this species.
The broomtail wrasse
C. lunulatus
has a narrow range
of distribution, it is found in the Western Indian Ocean
from the Red Sea to the Gulf of Oman. Both the lists
of countries and the point map of Froese and Pauly
(2014) did not show the presence of this species in the
Iraqi waters.
Assadi and Dehghani (1997) and IFC and
IFRO (2000) have reported this species from the
Iranian waters, whilst
Parenti and Randall (2000)
reported it from the Arabian Gulf, but they did not
mention the coast of which country their record comes
from. Al-Baharna (1986) reported this species from
Bahrain and the present record is a confirmation of its
presence in the Iraqi marine waters and the second
record for the Arabian Gulf area.
The
Cheilinus
species differ from this species as
follow:
Cheilinus chlorurus
(Bloch, 1791) having
opercular flap not black, with a yellow streak;
C.
abudjubbe
Rüppell, 1835 with four pairs of long red
lines radiating from eye on head;
C. fasciatus
(Bloch,
1791) with distinctive sides of yellowish to white bars,
and large red areas; the head of
C. trilobatus
Lacepède,
1801 with short red lines around eye and irregular red
lines and spots on cheek and nape and caudal fin often
trilobate in very large specimens.
C. undulatus
Rüppell, 1835 differ from this species in having a
prominent bulbous hump on the forehead and thick
lips.
The range of the total length of the specimens of this
species obtained in the present study falls near the
upper end of the maximum size given for this species
(Ranadll , 1995; Froese and Pauly, 2014) and falls
within the range given by Khalaf Allah (2013)
(139-432 mm total length) for specimens obtained
from the Red Sea coasts off Egypt.
The present record of
A. indicus, E. elongatus
,
and
C.
lunulatus
from the marine waters of Iraq constitutes a
substantial northward extension of the distribution of
these species (1320-1650 Km). The finding of twenty
four specimens of the three species from the Arabian
Gulf coasts of Iraq suggests that the wide spread in the
ichthyological sampling in the area has ended
perception of rarity of these species. It may also
suggests that these species may be overlooked and the
lack of sampling in the area prevents their regular
detection in the north-western part of the Arabian Gulf.
The capture of ten specimens of each of
A. indicus
and
C. lunulatus
during this study should not be regarded as
accidental it may indicates the presence of a self -
sustaining population of these two species in the
Arabian Gulf waters of Iraq. It is premature to assess
whether the present occurrence is represented by only
a few visitors of
E. elongatus
accidentally found in the
new area, or whether these specimens are a part of an
established population. Thus, the present records can
be considered important for the understanding of
zoogeographical patterns of ichthyofauna in the area.
Acknowledgement
Our sincere thanks should go to Joacin Näslund from Göteborg,
Sweden for his technical assistant.
References
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