ABSTRACT
Brevibora cheeya is a new species of cyprinid fish from the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. It is distinguished from its only congener, B. dorsiocellata, by the complete lateral line, more scales along the lateral row and larger size.
KEY WORDS: Taxonomy, Brevibora cheeya, Brevibora dorsiocellata, Southeast Asia, Biodiversity.
KEY WORDS: Taxonomy, Brevibora cheeya, Brevibora dorsiocellata, Southeast Asia, Biodiversity.
Etymology. – Cheeya and Beiya, are two Chinese deities who hunt ghosts for Yama; “chee” and “bei” mean seven and eight, respectively, and “ya” is an honorable title for a respected person. Cheeya is tall and Beiya is short; in allusion to its relatively larger size as compared to B. dorsiocellata. A noun in apposition.
Distribution and field notes. – Brevibora cheeya is distributed both in the westerly and easterly fl owing river basins of Peninsular Malaysia (western: Selangor; eastern: Terengganu, Pahang, Johor), Central Sumatra (Jambi, Riau) and Banka Island (Fig. 5). Brevibora dorsiocellata appears to be restricted to the Muar river basin in Malaysia, but this could be due to insuffi cient sampling (based on ZRC material and second author pers. obs.); but occurs in Central Sumatra, where B. cheeya is also present, but seemingly in different sub-basins. The Brevibora dorsiocellata group is also present in Borneo, and will be covered in more detail in future works.
The type locality in Malaysia is in a coastal heath forest (Fig. 6). This habitat consists mainly of Melaleuca
(Myrtaceae) stands on sandy and peaty substrate. The waters are tannin stained, slow fl owing, and acidic (pH 4.5, as measured in February 2009). Syntopic species recorded from the type locality include: Boraras maculatus, Cyclocheilichthys apogon, Osteochilus spilurus, Parachela maculicauda, P. oxygastroides, Rasbora einthovenii, R. trilineata, Systomus johorensis, Trigonopoma gracile, T. pauciperforatum (Cyprinidae), Lepidocephalichthys furcatus, Pangio alcoides, P. semicincta (Cobitidae), Kryptopterus macrocephalus, Ompok leiacanthus, Wallago leerii (Siluridae), Hemibagrus nemurus, Pseudomystus leiacanthus (Bagridae), Clarias batrachus, C. meladerma (Clariidae), Parakysis verrucosa (Akysidae), Aplocheilus panchax (Aplocheilidae), Hemirhamphodon pogonognathus (Hemiramphidae), Monopterus albus (Synbranchidae), Nandus nebulosus (Nandidae), Pristolepis grooti (Pristolepididae), Belontia hasseltii, Betta imbellis, B. waseri, Luciocephalus pulcher, Parosphromenus paludicola, Trichopodus leerii, T. trichopterus, Trichopsis vittata (Osphronemidae), Channa bankanensis, C. lucius and C. striata (Channidae) (Kottelat et al., 1992; unpublished data).
Liao, T-Y., and H. H. Tan, 2011. Brevibora cheeya, A New Species of cyprinid Fish from Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 59(1): 77-82
