Travancore yellow barb

Travancore yellow barb
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Actinopterygii
Order:Cypriniformes
Family:Cyprinidae
Subfamily:Barbinae
Genus:Puntius
Species: P. nelson
Binomial name
Puntius nelson
Plamoottil, 2014[1]

The Travancore yellow barb (Puntius nelsoni) is a species of fish in the family Cyprinidae.[2] The species was discovered in 2011, named and described by Mathews Plamoottil from the Baby John Memorial Government College, Chavara, Kollam, Kerala in 2014 in the International Journal of Fauna and Biological Studies. It was collected from Kallumkal region of Manimala River in Kerala, India (Western Ghats), with a running length of 92 km only and it empties into the Vembanad Lake. Puntius nelsoni is named after Nelson P. Abraham of St. Thomas college, Kozhencherry .[1][3]

Distribution

The Travancore yellow barb has so far only been recorded from the Manimala River which has its origin in Muthavara Hills of the Western Ghats, at 762m (2500 feet) above main sea level. There is a good chance of finding them in Pamba River also the holo type ZSI/WGRC/IR/23 collection location was in Kallumkal of Thiruvalla region which is the confluence of the Manimala river in to the Pamba River.[4]

Description

The holotype ZSI/WGRC/IR/23 and 3 Paratypes ZSI/ WGRC/ IR/ 2354 was found on the Kallumkal region of Manimala River near Thiruvalla in Pattanamthitta District on August 21, 2011. This Puntius fish can be distinguished from the rest of the species by the combination of following unique characteristics such as the smaller snout, the short, feeble maxillaries which do not reach the orbit, nostrils placed halfway between the orbit and snout tip, the deeper head with a wider gape and the wide head. There are five and half scales between lateral line and the dorsal fin, and the lateral line has 25- 26 scales with three and half scales between lateral line and ventral fin.[5] The holotype had a total tail to snout length of 91 millimetres. In general, the body shows an elongated, laterally compressed form.

Habitat

The Travencore yellow barb's habitat shows a substrate which is largely dominated by mud sediments with intermittent patches of bare sand, among the mud.[2]

Coloration

Body of the fish is yellowish as well as all the fins,[6] at the summit of occiput there is a bluish green mark, and there is many fine black dots forming a thin band in gill covering (In most of the scales in the gill covers there is a collection of black shade), a unique golden/reddish brown scarlet mark occurs on gill covers and it don't have the usual spot at the base of back fin in many puntius species. End of the caudal fin is dusky in color (a scattered black patch is present in caudal base). Back of the head is greenish yellow in color.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 Plamoottil, M. (2014). "Puntius nelsoni, Systomus chryseus and S. rufus (Cypriniformes: Cyrinidae), three new fish species from Kerala, India". International Journal of Fauna and Biological Studies. 1 (6): 135–145.
  2. 1 2 Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2006). "Puntius nelsoni" in FishBase. April 2006 version.
  3. ↑ http://metrovaartha.com/en/2015/02/11/four-new-fishes-discovered-from-kerala/
  4. 1 2 http://www.faunajournal.com/vol1Issue6/Issue_oct_2014/1-6-10.1.pdf
  5. ↑ http://currentaffairs.gktoday.in/current-affairs/puntius-nelsoni
  6. ↑ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Four-new-fish-species-discovered-in-Kerala/articleshow/46199299.cms
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