A manual on Taxonomical Identification of Clupeiformes Fishes

This book describes you the taxonomical identification of Clupeiformes fishes of Southeast coast of India. Nagapattinam, Puducherry fishing harbors and Parangipettai fish landing centre, was the places mainly concentrated for the sample collcetion. A total of 56 species of Clupeiformes fishes belonging to 19 genera and 4 families were identified during January 2008 to December 2009. The order Clupeiformes comprised four families namely Clupeidae, Engraulidae, Pristigasteridae and Chirocentridae. The family Clupeidae was represented by 30 species belonging to twelve genera. The family Engraulidae was represented by 17 species belonging to four genera. The family Pristigasteridae was represented by 7 species belonging to two genera. The family Chirocentridae was poorly represented at all the three stations by only 2 species belonging to single genera. A clear detailed study on the description of the order Clupeiformes and family chirocentridae, key characters clupeoid families and clupeoid genera were given for trouble-free identification.