Indian Journal of Geo Marine Sciences Vol. 47 (11), November 2018, pp. 2237-2240 DNA barcoding of False stone fish Scorpaenopsis diabolus (Cuvier, 1829), a new record for the Andaman Islands and India Chatragadda Ramesh*, Raju Mohanraju, Perumal Karthick and Kada Narayana Murthy Department of Ocean Studies and Marine Biology, Pondicherry Central University, Brookshabad Campus, Port Blair-744102, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, India. *[E-mail address: chrameshpu@gmail.com] Received 05 April 2017: revised 03 May 2017 A specimen of the false stone fish Scorpaenopsis diabolus(Cuvier, 1829)was captured at the Burmanallah coast in the Andaman Islands, India. Identification was done combining traditional taxonomy, based on the observation and measurement of morphology traits, with DNA barcoding in an integrative taxonomy approach. On this basis, S. diabolus constitutes a new record in the faunal diversity of the Andaman Islands and India. [Keywords: Scorpaenopsis diabolus, DNA barcoding, cytochrome oxidase subunit I, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.] Introduction The world oceans occupy 70% of the earth space, where a wide variety of commercial and non- commercial fishes are found to inhabit various depths of neritic and pelagic zones. So far, 33200 extant fish species have been reported across the world and 2455 are known from Indian subcontinent 1 . Identification of these fishes are based on morphometric characteristics that sometimes have failed to discriminate morphologically similar fishes and early larval stages. The efficacy of DNA barcoding has emerged as a reliable technique in tackling taxonomical identification. DNA barcoding technique has an important role in conserving the genetical data of many organisms especially rare and endangered species. Moreover, it has become a reliable genetical tool in identification of highly species rich biotas, morphologically similar organisms and other organisms that are difficult for identification 2 . Although morphological taxonomy is reliable for identification, yet, DNA Barcoding (genetical taxonomy) is still more important and accurate because of genetical sequence similarity studies that do not misidentify any organisms. The universal gene marker of animals is 655 base pair of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I (COI or cox1) gene fragment most widely used for barcoding various organisms 3,4 . Scorpaenidae are a well-known fish family comprised of 215 species belong to 26 genera and are distributed in the Indo-Pacific region, at depths of 1 m to 70 m 5 . In India 35 species belong to 15 genera of Scorpaenidae have been recorded 6 . This family includes venomous false stone fish (spines are venomous) also referred to as devil scorpionfish that mimics venomous true reef stone fish species of the family Synanceiidae. S. diabolus are one of the most important venomous fish in coral reef biome. Commonly they are found as solitary or in pairs in weed bottoms, rubbles and coral reefs up to at depths of 70 m. So far only 500 out of 15661 species of Scorpaeniformes have been barcoded 7 . The analysis of COI nucleotide sequence in the present study has shown the application of DNA barcoding in confirming the taxonomic identification of a specimen of the venomous false stone fish Scorpaenopsis diabolus from the Andaman Islands. Materials and Methods Sample collection The specimen of false stone fish also referred to as devil scorpionfish was caught cautiously with a hand net from a rocky shore with corals at Burmanallah coast (Latitude 11⁰ 34’14.48’’ N; Longitude 92⁰44’22.73’’E ) during the low tide time (Fig. 1). Morphological identification Initially the specimen was identified by counting morphometric characteristics followed by