Facciolella smithi, a new species of deep-water nettastomatid eel (Anguilliformes: Nettastomatidae) from the Arabian Sea

A new nettastomatid eel species is described based on eight specimens collected from the deep-water (260450 meters depth) of the eastern Arabian Sea. The new species is characterized by having large head, dorsal-fin origin before gill openings, body and head bicolour, and total vertebrae 156+205+. It differs from its congeners in position of dorsal-fin origin (before gill openings vs. behind gill openings in F. castlei, F. equatorialis, F. oxyrhynchus) and from F. karrerae and F. saurencheloides in having larger head (43.647.5% PAL vs. 36.237.3% PAL in F. karrerae and 28.532.0% PAL in F. saurencheloides). Comparison with CO1 mtDNA sequences in GenBank and BOLD, confirms that the new species forms a separate genetic lineage.