Indoreonectes telanganaensis, a new species of loach (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae) from the Godavari Basin of India

Abstract

A new species of hill-stream loach, Indoreonectes telanganaensis, is described from a seasonal tributary of the Godavari River at Maisamma Loddi, within the Kawal Tiger Reserve, Telangana State, India. The new species is distinguished from its congeners by a combination of characters including caudal peduncle as long as deep; eye large, its diameter about one-fifth head length; pectoral fin as long as head; nasal barbel reaching the middle of the eye; dorsal-fin origin on vertical through pelvic-fin origin; and bars on the lateral side of the body well defined and wide. We also provide multivariate morphometric, and DNA analysis based on the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene sequence to support the distinction of the new species.

Two new species of the hillstream loach genus Indoreonectes from the northern Western Ghats of India (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae)

“…In the current study we redescribe Indoreonectes evezardi from its type locality using fresh collections and specimens studied by Prasad et al (2020). Further, we describe two new species from the I. evezardi complex from the Mula River, a tributary of the Godavari river system and from the Hiranyakeshi River, part of the Krishna river system.…”

“…The genus is diagnosed based on following combination of characters following Rita et al (1978) and, Bănărescu and Nalbant (1995): nostrils close to each other, posterior one distant from eye; lateral line present, short; length of nasal barbels variable; free posterior part of air bladder rudimentary; bars on side of body. Currently, the genus is represented by three species, I. evezardi (Day, 1872), I. keralensis (Rita and Nalbant, 1978) and I. telanganaensis (Prasad, Srinivasulu, Srinivasulu, Anoop and Dahanukar, 2020).…”

“…Indoreonectes evezardi has been considered to be a widely distributed species in peninsular India north of the Palghat Gap, occurring in the east-flowing Krishna, Godavari and Cauvery river systems in addition to several west-flowing rivers in Goa, Maharashtra, and Gujarat states, while I. keralensis is restricted to river systems south of the Palghat gap, particularly the Periyar, Pampa, Muvattupuzha, and Meenachil rivers of Western Ghats of Kerala (Rita et al 1978;Menon 1987;Kottelat 1990b;Rema Devi et al 2002Dahanukar et al 2004;Kazi et al 2018;Raghavan and Ali 2011). The recently described species I. telanganaensis is currently known only from its type locality, a seasonal stream of the Godavari River within the Kawal Tiger Reserve, Mancheriyal District, Telangana State (Prasad et al 2020).…”

“…However, lack of type material for I. evezardi (see for detailed discussion, Prasad et al 2020: 344) has made it difficult to diagnose species in the I. evezardi complex. Although Prasad et al (2020) recognized this issue and provided photographs of I. evezardi from its type locality, they did not redescribe the species in detail.…”

A checklist of fishes of Telangana State, India

“…Over the last few years, several new species of fish were described from this region. This includes a new species of bagrid catfish Rita bakalu from Pranahita River (Lal et al 2017) and a new species of hillstream loach Indoreonectes telanganaensis (Prasad et al 2020b). Prasad & Srinivasulu (2019a,b) provided new records of fishes from Telangana State, while Shyamsundar et al (2017) and Prasad et al (2020a) reported the checklist of freshwater fish fauna in the Udayasamudram and Manjeera reservoirs, respectively.…”