A new species of eight-gilled hagfish (Myxinidae: Eptatretus) off Kerala, Western Indian Ocean

This paper describes Eptatretus sunilii Ida & Bineesh, a new hagfish species from the west coast of India.The specimens were caught as bycatch by a deep-sea shrimp trawler operated at a depth of 400-600 m and were landed at Sakthikulangara Fisheries Harbour, Kollam, Kerala.The fish differs from most other Eptatretus Cloquet 1819 by having eight pairs of gill pouches and eight numbers of gill apertures, 3/2 multi-cusp teeth, and 68 -78 total slime pores.Though appears to be similar to Eptatretus indrambaryai Wongratana, (1983), Eptatretus octatrema Barnard (1923), Eptatretus okinoseanus Dean, (1904), and Eptatretus gomoni Mincarone and Fernholm, (2010) in having the same number of gill apertures and 3/2 multi-cusp teeth, it differs from these species by having fewer slime pores (68-78), a total cusp count of 42, and longer branchial length (10.31-12.22% TL), and formed a distinct clade in the ML phylogenetic tree.