Anvar Ali

Taxonomy of the zodiac loaches, Mesonoemacheilus triangularis , M. tambaraparniensis and M. periyarensis , endemic to the Western Ghats of India (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae)

The Nemacheilid loaches, Noemacheilus triangularis tambaraparniensis and Nemacheilus periyarensis have been widely considered to be synonyms of the zodiac loach, Mesonoemacheilus triangularis. An integrative taxonomic investigation based on topotypic material, involving molecular analysis of two mitochondrial genes (cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 and cytochrome b), multivariate morphometric analysis based on non-metric multidimensional scaling and non-parametric multivariate analysis of variance suggests that the three species are in fact distinct.

Amblyceps accari , a new species of torrent catfish (Teleostei: Amblycipitidae) from the Western Ghats of India

A new species of torrent catfish, Amblyceps accari, is described from the central region of the Western Ghats of India. The new species differs from all its congeners by having 12 branched anal-fin rays (vs. 7-10 in other Amblyceps, rarely 11 in A. tuberculatum). It differs further from all other species of the genus except A. murraystuarti and A. torrentis in having the adipose fin confluent with the dorsal procurrent part of the caudal fin and by the following combination of characters from all its congeners: jaws unequal with lower jaw weakly-projecting, pectoral spine smooth, adipose-fin origin opposite anal-fin origin, dorsal fin to adipose-fin distance more than one fourth of standard length, adipose fin long with its base more than one-fourth of standard length, and deeply forked caudal fin with minute, poorly developed, centrally projecting hooks on the proximal lepidotrichia of central caudal-fin rays. The discovery of the new species represents the first record of this genus from peninsular India.

Redescription of Nemachilichthys rueppelli , a senior synonym of N. shimogensis (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae)

The hill-stream loach genus Nemachilichthys, an endemic of the Western Ghats of India, comprises two nominal species, N. rueppelli and N. shimogensis. The validity of the latter has been questioned by several authors. Here we show that there is only a marginal raw mitochondrial genetic distance (0.5% in cytochrome oxidase subunit I and 1.2% in cytochrome b) between topotypic specimens of the two nominal species. Further, although population-level morphometric variations appear in a multivariate morphometric analysis, the two nominal species are morphologically similar, with apparently no significant characters separating them. We therefore consider N. shimogensis to be a junior synonym of N. rueppelli and redescribe the latter, providing further details on population variation and distribution.

Population dynamics of a poorly known serranid, the duskytail grouper Epinephelus bleekeri in the Arabian Sea

A demographic study on Epinephelus bleekeri based on a sample of 1,003 individuals caught in commercial fisheries along the Arabian Sea coast of southern India considerably extends the maximum recorded standard length for this species to 870 mm, indicates a high natural mortality rate and an exploitation level (E) greater than the Emax .