Abstract:
Leaping blenny fish which belongs to the family Blenniidae exhibits amphibious
behaviors and are common inhabitants in the rocky intertidal zones throughout the world.
But there is no adequate data available to show their presence in many parts of the tropics
including the Northern Bay of Bengal region. In this study, morphological and molecular
methods were used to identify leaping blenny fish species on the Western coast of Sri
Lanka. Samples were collected from Negombo, Panadura, and Beruwala beaches to
represent the Western coastal belt of Sri Lanka. Thirty blennies were collected from each
site. All collected fish were analyzed morphologically by considering twelve
morphometric characters and five meristic characters. Condition factor of fish at each site
was also calculated. Five fish randomly selected from each site were subjected to do
molecular analysis. When considering morphometric characters, there was a significant
difference between the fish collected from the three sites in terms of body weight,
standard length, total length, head length, maximum body depth, head depth, mouth gape,
orbital length, predorsal length, length of the dorsal base, length of anal fin base and
length of pectoral fin base. When comparing the mean values of each morphometric
measurement for three sites, fish collected from the Panadura site showed a higher mean
value than that of Negombo and Beruwala. Condition factor of fish at Negombo (0.97±
0.20) and Panadura (1.14±0.35) showed a well-conditioned habitat, while the fish in
Beruwala (K= 0.59±0.08) were quite lean. Overall, four different species on the Western
coast of Sri Lanka were identified using molecular methods. Entomacrodus striatus and
Alticus monochrus were recorded from the Beruwala site and Istiblennius dussumieri was
recorded from Negombo. From the Panadura site, Entomacrodus epalzeocheilos and
Alticus monochrus were identified. The phylogenetic tree shows that the two species
belonging to the genus Entomacrodus are very similar to each other even though they
have been found in different locations. This study shows that though the species are living
in different locations they have not genetically diverged.
