Two new species of Pseudecheneis, rheophilic catfishes (Teleostei: Sisoridae) from Nepal.
Author
Heok Hee Ng
Author
David R. Edds
text
Zootaxa
2005
1047
1
19
http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:E29D456B-DC4B-40EA-A11F-0A3F53380A68
journal article
z01047p001
[[
Pseudecheneis Blyth
]]
Rheophilic catfishes of the sisorid genus
Pseudecheneis Blyth, 1860
occur in the headwaters of major river drainages throughout South and Southeast Asia. A member of the Glyptosterninae (a group distributed from the Caucasus to China),
Pseudecheneis
is easily diagnosed from other glyptosternines by a thoracic adhesive apparatus consisting of a series of transverse ridges (laminae) separated by grooves (sulcae) (de Pinna, 1996; Roberts, 1998), an adaptation to life in fast-flowing waters. Five species of
Pseudecheneis
are considered valid here, viz.
P. sulcata (M’Clelland, 1842)
,
P. paviei Vaillant, 1904
,
P. immaculata Chu, 1982
,
P. sulcatoides Zhou & Chu, 1992
, and
P. sympelvica Roberts, 1998
.
Pseudecheneis sulcata
is known from the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Salween and Irrawaddy River drainages,
P. paviei
from the Red River drainage, and
P. immaculata
,
P. sulcatoides
and
P. sympelvica
from the Mekong River drainage.
While comparing material identified as
Pseudecheneis sulcata
from the Ganges River drainage in Nepal (collected by DRE) and the Brahmaputra River drainage in India (collected by HHN) for a phylogenetic study of the Sisoridae, differences were observed that suggested the material from Nepal belongs to two undescribed species, which are described below.