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| Mystus irulu Vijayakrishnan & Praveenraj, 2022 photo: Pranav Joshi |
Abstract
Mystus irulu, new species, is described from the Netravathi River system from the Western Ghats of Karnataka. It differs all South Asian congeners in having a uniformly black colour pattern, a long-based adipose fin reaching the base of the last dorsal-fin ray anteriorly, dorsal fin with convex dorsoposterior margin, and the following combination of characters: body depth at anus 19.9–22.3 % SL, dorsal-fin spine length 17.5–18.7 % SL, adipose-fin base 34.2–38.4 % SL, caudal peduncle depth 10.6–11.9 % SL and eye diameter 27.2–37.1 % HL.
Keywords: Pisces, Siluriformes, Bagridae, Western Ghats, Netravathi River, Karnataka
Mystus irulu, new species
Balaji Vijayakrishnan and Jayasimhan Praveenraj. 2022. Mystus irulu, A New Species of Bagrid Catfish from the Western Ghats of Karnataka, India (Teleostei: Bagridae). Zootaxa. 5120(3); 443-448. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5120.3.10
It is named as Mystus irulu in reference to the uniform black colored body of this species. The specific name irulu is derived from Kannada (the official language of the state of Karnataka), meaning dark.