A new species of the conger eel genus Macrocephenchelys from deep waters of the Arabian Sea.

A new species of the genus Macrocephenchelys is described herein based on a single specimen collected from the deep‐sea trawl landing at Kalamukku fish landing centre, Kerala coast, Arabian Sea. The new species is distinguished by having a dorsal‐fin origin behind the middle of pectoral fin, a larger head, shorter trunk, larger gill opening, dorsal surface of body with dark‐brown colour and ventral surface of head and belly with numerous patches of melanophores before anus, vertebrae 14‐30‐151. The new species shares most of the characteristics with Macrocephenchelys brevirostris but differs from it by having a more anterior dorsal‐fin origin (vs. over the tip or slightly behind the pectoral‐fin tip), larger head [15.3% total length (TL) vs. 10.5%–13.9% TL, 53.2% pre‐anal length (PAL) vs. 35.8%–47.6% PAL], shorter trunk length (13.6% TL vs. 14.4%–20.6% TL, 47.3% PAL vs. 52.4%–66.2% PAL); further it shows 7.9%–8.1% genetic divergence from the sequences of M. brevirostris. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]