On the Identity of Blue Striped Snappers (Pisces: Perciformes: Lutjanidae) of India

The snappers (Perciformes: Lutjanidae) are known to be represented by 9 genera and 41 species in India (Talwar, 1991), while 17 genera with about 105 species are recognized in the world (Nelson, 2006). The genus Lutjanus Bloch is represented by 68 species (Froece and Pauly, 2013), of which a few species are characterized in having pale or yellowish ground colour with 4 to 8 blue longitudinal stripes (brownish in preservative). Such blue striped snappers are namely, L. bengalensis (Bloch, 1790), L. coeruleolineatus (Ruppell, 1830), L. kasmira (Forsskal, 1775), L. notatus (Cuvier, 1828), L. quinquelineatus (Bloch, 1790) and L. viridis (Valenciennes, 1846) (Allen, 1985).