MONOGNATHUS BERTELI SP-NOV FROM THE INDIAN-OCEAN (PISCES, MONOGNATHIDAE)

A new deepsea monognathid species, Monognathus berteli, is described b ased on one specimen collected pelagically in the northwestern Indian Ocean at 1440-1018 meters of depth. Like M. taningi and M. bertini, it belongs to the short-skulled species-group and has very long pectoral fins, but differs from these species by several meristic characters. The described specimen has a very long caudal filament (53% SL) which is not known from other Monognathus. However, the fragile filament is not used as a diagnostic character since it could easily be broken.