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| Schistura hiranyakeshi Praveenraj, Thackeray & Balasubramanian 2020 |
Schistura hiranyakeshi, a new species of loach is described from Hiranyakeshi River, Amboli, Sindhudurg district, Maharashtra. It is unique among congeners from peninsular, northeastern, and central India, and Sri Lanka in having an incomplete lateral line with 6-7 pores and ending at a point vertical at half the length of the adpressed pectoral fin; dorsal fin and caudal fin devoid of spots or blotches; body with 9-10 bars that are wider or almost equal in width to the interspaces; dorsal fin, anal fin and sub-dorsal bars with a unique crimson color in adult males; lower lip with a black mark on each side of the median interruption in live and preserved specimens; and no suborbital flap or axillary pelvic lobe.
Schistura hiranyakeshi
named after the Hiranyakeshi River drainage in Sindhudurg District of Maharashtra, India, where type locality (a temple pond fed by a natural spring from a laterite cave system) is situated; also, in Sanskrit, hiranyakeshi means “golden hair,” alluding to the golden-yellow coloration and body of adult specimens
Jayasimhan Praveenraj, Tejas Thackeray and Shankar Balasubramanian. 2020. Schistura hiranyakeshi A New Loach (Cypriniformes: Nemacheilidae) from Maharashtra, Northern Western Ghats, India. aqua - Int. Journal Ichthyol. 26(2)
