Taxonomy of snappers of the genus lutjanus bloch 1790 from the arabian sea

Abstract- The family Lutjanidae collectively known as snappers comprise 17 genera and 105species, mainly confined to tropical and subtropical marine waters, with few also entering the estuaries. Lutjanus Bloch 1790 is by far the largest genus with 70 species, including at least 43 species from the Indo-West Pacific region. Although the taxonomy and systematics of Lutjanus has been the focus of much research in the tropical Indo-Pacific, not much work has been done in the Indian waters. This study was carried out to determine the taxonomy (morphological and molecular) of snappers of the genus Lutjanus from the South West coast of India and the Laccadive archipelago. A total of eight species, Lutjanus kasmira, L. gibbus, L. fulvus, L. bohar, L. lutjanus, L. argentimaculatus, L. fulviflamma and L. johnii were recorded from various locations along the South West Coast of India and the Laccadive archipelago with Lutjanus kasmira and L. gibbus being the most widely distributed species. Several species including Lutjanus fulvus, L. lutjanus, L. fulviflamma and L. johnii were recorded from only one island in the Laccadive archipelago. The bootstrap values for the nodes were low, showing that the phylogeny/relationships were not well established, possibly due to the low sequences divergence arising due to sampling specimen belonging to the same population from different location. Lutjanus kasmira and L. gibbus is widespread in the Laccadive archipelago and could be managed as a single unit. The results of the occurrence of various species based on morphological investigations were also validated in the molecular phylogenetic analysis. Further studies using multiple genes and osteology should be carried out to improve our understanding of the diversity and distribution of Lutjanus species from the Arabian Sea.