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| Horabagrus obscurus Kumar, Ravi, Prasoon & Basheer, 2024 |
Abstract
We describe a new species of Horabagrus, found in sympatry with H. nigricollaris, from the Chalakkudy river basin in Kerala, South India. Horabagrus obscurus, new species, differs from the two other known species in the genus in its colour pattern, lesser body width at the pectoral girdle, shorter barbels and total vertebral counts. Differences in partial sequences of the mitochondrial COI and CytB genes also serve to distinguish the new species from congeners. The new discovery reasserts the importance of the Chalakkudy river basin as a hotspot of piscine diversity in the Western Ghats.
Keywords: Chalakkudy River, Horabagridae, Western Ghats, Kerala, Mitochondrial CO1
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| Horabagrus obscurus in life, all from the Chalakkudy River at Vettilappara. (a) NBFGR/HORHOBS.7, paratype, 248 mm SL, (b) NBFGR/HORHOBS.4, paratype, 206 mm SL and (c) NBFGR/HORHOBS.1, paratype, 152 mm SL |
Horabagrus obscurus, new species
Diagnosis: Horabagrus obscurus is distinguished from its congeners by a distinctive colour pattern in life, consisting of a greenish-brown ground colour mottled with black and a small black humeral blotch with a yellow to white region immediately anteroventral to the blotch (vs. a yellow ground colour with a large circular black humeral blotch, larger than eye diameter, ringed with pale yellow to white in H. brachysoma; and a distinct black “collar” covering the humeral region and nape, margined by a pale yellow to white band in H. nigricollaris). Horabagrus obscurus can additionally be distinguished from ...
Etymology: From the Latin obscurus, meaning dark or cloudy, a reference to the colour pattern of the fish. The word obscure in english also means cryptic or ambiguous and refers to the confusion between H. obscurus and the sympatric H. nigricollaris.
Rahul G. Kumar, Charan Ravi, N. P. Krishna Prasoon, V. S. Basheer. 2024. A New sympatric Species of Horabagrus (Siluriformes: Horabagridae) from the Chalakkudy River basin in Kerala, India. Indian Journal of Fisheries. 71(4); https://epubs.icar.org.in/index.php/IJF/article/view/146333
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