JoTT 4(2): 2333-2408 26 February 2012 by ZOO-WILD

February 2012 | Vol. 4 | No. 2 | Pages 2333â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2408 Date of Publication 26 February 2012 ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print)

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JoTT Paper

4(2): 2333–2342

Population dynamics of an endemic and threatened Yellow Catfish Horabagrus brachysoma (Günther) from Periyar River, southern Western Ghats, India G. Prasad 1, Anvar Ali 2, M. Harikrishnan 3 & Rajeev Raghavan 4,5 Laboratory of Conservation Biology, Department of Zoology, University of Kerala, Kariavattom, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala 695581, India 3 School of Industrial Fisheries, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi, Kerala 682016, India 4 Conservation Research Group (CRG), St. Albert’s College, Kochi, Kerala 682018, India 5 Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NR, United Kingdom Email: 1 probios2003@yahoo.co.in (corresponding author), 2 anvaraliif@gmail.com, 3 mahadevhari@hotmail.com, 4 rajeevraq@hotmail.com 1,2

Abstract: Based on the annual length frequency data collected from three major fish landing centres along the River Periyar, draining the southern Western Ghats, the von Bertalanffy growth function (VBGF) estimates of Horobagrus brachysoma were worked out as asymptotic length (La) = 422mm total length, growth co-efficient (K) = 0.55 yr-1 and growth performance index (ø) = 4.99. The total mortality rate (Z) was estimated at 5.64 yr-1, natural mortality rate (M) at 1.04 yr-1, fishing mortality (F) at 4.60 yr-1, and exploitation rate (E) at 0.82 yr-1. Yield per recruit (expected lifetime yield per fish recruited in the stock at a specific age) analysis showed an excessive fishing effort. Using the analysis of probability of capture of each length class, the length at first capture (Lc) of H. brachysoma was estimated to be 110mm. An indication of both growth and recruitment fishing is provided by the dominance of year 1 class in the exploited population and the capture of immature individuals below first maturity. Management of H. brachysoma fishing should include setting of a minimum mesh size limit of 160–180 mm for gill nets as well as a closed season starting from the month of May till August aimed at protecting the spawning stock. This study on H. brachysoma, an endemic and threatened catfish of peninsular India, provides hard evidence that species targeted by artisanal fishermen, in small-scale tropical riverine fisheries, are vulnerable to overexploitation. Keywords: Artisanal fishery, Horabagrus brachysoma, overfishing, small-scale fishery, threatened species

Date of publication (online): 26 February 2012 Date of publication (print): 26 February 2012 ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print) Editor: Anonimity requested Manuscript details: Ms # o2590 Received 29 September 2010 Final received 03 January 2012 Finally accepted 30 January 2012 Citation: Prasad, G., A. Ali, M. Harikrishnan & R. Raghavan (2012). Population dynamics of an endemic and threatened Yellow Catfish Horabagrus brachysoma (Günther) from Periyar River, southern Western Ghats, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(2): 2333–2342. Copyright: © G. Prasad, Anvar Ali, M. Harikrishnan & Rajeev Raghavan 2012. Creative Commons Attaribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non-profit purposes, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication. Author Details, Author Contribution and Acknowledgements: See end of this article.

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Introduction Small scale freshwater fisheries contribute an important source of food security and livelihood to billions of rural communities in the tropics. However, lack of fundamental data on such fisheries has led to failures in management aimed at preventing overexploitation, population decline, and their impact on local livelihoods. Meanwhile, overfishing has currently become an important driver of biodiversity loss in inland waters (Allan et al. 2005) and decline in population of many species are occurring concomitantly with the increase in global inland fish production. In Asia, the world’s largest inland fish producing region, wild caught freshwater fisheries have been showing signs of overexploitation with declines in catch per unit effort, age at maturity and also the average size of fishes caught (Dudgeon 2000). In spite of being small-scale and artisanal in nature, the fishery of several important freshwater fish including mahseer (Bhatt et al. 2000, 2004; Raghavan et al. 2011) and catfish (Patra et al. 2005) in India; major carps (de Graaf 2003) in Bangladesh; large cyprinids in the Mekong basin (Baird 2006; Dudgeon 2000) and sturgeons in China (Wei et al. 1997) have shown a characteristic decline in the last decade. Exhaustive information is currently available on the demography, population regulation and exploitation patterns of large numbers of marine fish species. However, unlike marine ecosystems, datasets on the

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dynamics of exploited populations of economically important fish species in rivers, especially those in the developing countries are largely unavailable. This is mainly due to the lack of personnel and financial resources in such countries to undertake research programs (Maccord et al. 2007). These deficiencies are also a cause and consequence of the lack of attention that the sector receives from the government (Anonymous 2002). As with other small rivers in Asia, Periyar—a 244-km long river in the southern Indian state of Kerala—supports a lucrative inland fishery, largely based on cyprinids and catfish. This fishery, mainly concentrated in the lower stretches of the river is predominantly artisanal. The Yellow Catfish Horabagrus brachysoma is one such species which is targeted frequently by the traditional fishermen of Periyar River using gill nets (odakku vala; Malayalam) operated from canoes and also by using hooks and lines. Known locally as ‘manjakoori’, the Yellow Catfish grows to a size of 450mm (Talwar & Jhingaran 1991) and is a gourmet’s delight. Fingerlings of H. brachysoma, due to their vibrant yellow coloration are also becoming increasingly popular in the international aquarium pet trade (Raghavan 2006). A multitude of stressors including overexploitation, habitat alteration and pollution has, however, resulted in the population decline of H. brachysoma in its native ranges, with the fish getting listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (Raghavan & Ali 2011). The peculiar life history traits of the species, including a medium resilience to overfishing and a minimum population doubling time of 1.4 to 4.4 years (Froese & Pauly 2009) also makes this species vulnerable to the overfishing. In spite of its threatened status, declining numbers and specific life history traits, exploitation of H. brachysoma for both the food and ornamental markets continues unabated (Ali et al. 2007). In Vembanad Lake, which is an extensive system of backwaters (and a Ramsar wetland) into which Periyar and five other river systems drain, H. brachysoma is the focus of organized artisanal gill net fishery (Raghavan 2006). Landings of the Yellow Catfish in Vembanad Lake have shown a wavy trend from 1995 until 2004, having increased and decreased every few years (Kurup et al. 1995; Bindu 2006; Sreeraj et al. 2007). Despite early reports of the serious population declines of H. brachysoma and co-occurring catfish 2334

species in the Vembanad Lake (Kurup et al. 1993), no effort hitherto has been made to assess the dynamics of these exploited stocks from either the lake, or from other water bodies of the state. This paper is the first comprehensive study on the population dynamics of this species.

Materials and Methods Study site River Periyar has a total catchment area of 5243km2 and a length of about 300km (Smakhtin et al. 2009). For a small-sized basin, Periyar nevertheless harbours a number of endemic and threatened species (Molur & Walker 1998; Kurup et al. 2006) which is approximately 70% of the fish species present in the Western Ghats Hotspot (Smakhtin et al. 2009). The present study was concentrated on the lower stretches of the Periyar River between 76010’–76023’N & 10098’–10073’E (Fig. 1) where H. brachysoma is known to be fished intensively. Data collection The total length (mm) and weight (g) data of H. brachysoma subsamples were measured from wellmixed catches of six to 10 fishermen, operating from three major fish landing centres, namely, Kalady (76019’N & 10010’E), Angadikadavu (76023’N & 10073’E) and Manjaly (76010’N & 10098’E), located in the lower stretches of Periyar River, from January to December 2005. Since males and females were easily distinguishable, they were identified by their big, soft and distended belly with swollen and reddish-pink vent (females) and reddish genital opening (males). Measures of 2638 males and 3382 females were taken for the study. No fish were collected or sacrificed for the purpose of the study. Sampling was carried out twice in each month during the first quarter moon and full moon. Data was collected following the methodology of Gulland & Rosenberg (1992) on the length based approaches to fish stock analyses published by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). During each sampling day, random sub samples of fish were obtained from well mixed catches. The total length of fish was measured to the nearest centimetre. A minimum of 200 fish were measured on each sampling day except on occasions when the catches were low.

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India

10010’

Kalady Manjaly

1008’ Angadikadavu

1006’

Sampling sites River Road network 0

2 km

76018’

76020’

76022’

76024’

76026’

76028’

Figure 1. Map showing landing centres

Data obtained from the two sampling days in each month were later pooled and recognized as a ‘monthly sample’ (mean 219.83 ± 18.60 males and 281.83 ± 26.95 females) by simple addition following AmaAbasi et al. (2004). This was done to avoid any bias in the data, as in some months there was a variation in the sample size obtained on the two different days. Data analysis Parameters a and b in the length-weight relationship equation W = aLb were estimated by least square regression after logarithmic transformation. Age and growth were estimated based on length-frequency data. It was assumed that the H. brachysoma growth conformed to the von Bertalanffy growth (VBG) model (von Bertalanffy 1938): Lt = L∞ (1- exp [- K (t – t0)]) where L∞ is the asymptotic length (mm), K the growth constant (month-1) and t0 time (months), when the theoretical length is zero. Growth parameters were obtained using the ELEFAN program (Pauly 1987) from the fitted curve with maximum goodness-of-fit (Rn) index. The growth performance index (f) was computed according to Moreau et al. (1986) as ø = Log

K + 2 logLa. Mortality coefficients, viz., total mortality (Z), instantaneous natural mortality (M), fishing mortality (F) and exploitation rate (E) were estimated using FiSAT program (Pauly 1980; Gayanilo & Pauly 1997). Natural mortality was calculated using the empirical formula of Pauly (1980): In M = 0.0152 – 0.2791n La + 0.65431n K + 0.4631n T. The exploitation rate was estimated using the formula E = F / Z (Gulland 1971). Although, we estimated the length-weight relationship as well as age for both males and females separately, the growth and mortality parameters were done only for the pooled populations. This was done so as to minimize any bias because of the difference in number of males and females obtained which may have influenced the results. The probability of capture was estimated from the left ascending arm of length-converted catch curve. The right descending part of the catch curve was extrapolated backwards, such that the fish that ought to have been caught, had it not been for the effect of incomplete selection or recruitment, were added to those in the curve, with the ratio of expected numbers to those that were actually caught being used to

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estimate probabilities of capture. This method provides reasonable estimates of mean size at first capture (Lc) (Hoydal et al. 1982; Jensen 1982). By plotting the cumulative probability of capture against mid-length, a resultant curve was obtained. From this curve the length at first capture Lc was taken as corresponding to the cumulative probability at 50%. The entire lengthfrequency data was used to reconstruct the seasonal recruitment pattern of the fish by projecting backward all the restructured length-frequency data onto a 1-year time scale (Pauly 1987), along a trajectory defined by the computed VBG function. Then, using the maximum likelihood approach, the Gaussian distribution was fitted to the back-projected data through NORMSEP (normal separation) procedure (Hasselbald 1966). The relative yield-per-recruit model of Beverton & Holt (1957, 1966) as modified by Pauly & Soriano (1986) and incorporated in the FiSAT program, was used to estimate the ‘relative yield-per-recruit’(Y/R) and ‘relative biomass-per-recruit’, assuming a selection ogive. The computed exploitation rate was compared with the expected values of Emax (the value of exploitation rate giving maximum relative yield-per-recruit), E 0.1 (the value of E at which marginal increase in Y/R is 10% of its value at E = 0) and E 0.5 (the value of E at 50% of the unexploited relative biomass-per-recruit) (Sparre & Venema 1992; Gayanilo & Pauly 1997). The potential longevity of H. brachysoma was also calculated (Pauly & Munro 1984): Tmax = 3/K. The yield isopleths diagram was used to assess the impact on yield created by changes of exploitation rate E and the ratio of length at first capture to asymptotic length (Lc/Lά) in relation to changes in mesh size. The optimum exploitation length (Lopt) was estimated from the empirical equation of Froese & Binholan (2000).

Results Length-Weight Relationship The length-weight relationship (LWR) of H. brachysoma males from the Periyar River was W = 0. 0093 L3.072 (n = 51, r = 0.96, p < 0.01) and those for females was W = 0.0079 L3.172 (n =61, r = 0.98, p < 0.01). LWR of combined sexes was found to be W = 0.0084 L3.105 (n = 112, r = 0.972, p < 0.01). In all cases, the exponent of length–weight relationship b was higher 2336

than 3 (males 3.072; females 3.127 and pooled 3.105) and the 95% higher and lower confidence interval values were also above 3 indicating that the growth of H. brachysoma in river Periyar was isometric. Exploited stock The exploited population of H. brachysoma in Periyar during 2005 was constituted by individuals ranging from 112 to 340 mm. The highest length class recorded among males was 280–300 mm while the same in female populations was 320–340 mm. The fishery was dominated by individuals in the size range of 170 to 250 mm in both males and females. The size classes 200–220 mm and 240–260 mm (both 19% each) constituted the largest share in males whereas in females it was the 240–260 mm size class (21%) followed by 220–240 mm (17%) size class. Sex ratio was 1:1.3 which was not significantly different from 1:1 (p > 0.05). Growth The growth parameters estimated in the male population of H. brachysoma from Periyar River are given in Table 1. The value of t0 as estimated by the empirical equation given by Pauly (1979) was found to be -0.0108. The FiSAT output of restructured length frequency data of male population of H. brachysoma in river Periyar with superimposed growth curve fitted with highest levels of Rn is given in Fig. 2. The VBGF for male H. brachysoma based on the growth parameters in the present study was expressed as: Lt = 388 [1 - exp-0.51(t+0.0108)]. The lengths attained by male H. brachysoma following VBGF equation at the end of first, second, third and fourth years were estimated to be 156mm, 249mm, 304mm and 338mm respectively. For the female population (Table 1), the value of t0 was found to be –0.0103. The FiSAT output of restructured length frequency data of female population of H. brachysoma in Periyar River with superimposed growth curve fitted with highest levels of Rn is given in Fig. 3. The value of t0 as estimated by empirical equation given by Pauly (1979) plot was found to be -0.0103. The VBGF arrived at, based on the growth parameters in terms of female H. brachysoma, can be expressed as Lt = 400 [1 - exp-0.63(t +0.0103)]. The lengths attained by female H. brachysoma following VBGF equation at the end of first, second, third and fourth

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Table 1. Growth parameters in male, female and pooled population of H. brachysoma of Periyar River

Length (mm)

300 240 180 120 60 0

Length (mm)

300 240 180 120 60 J

Figure 3. Growth curve of female population of Horabagrus brachysoma from River Periyar by ELEFAN 1 superimposed on the restructured length frequency diagram (Lα = 400mm, K = 0.63 yr-1 and Rn = 0.314)

Length (mm)

300 240 180 120 60 0

Figure 4. Growth curve of pooled population of Horabagrus brachysoma from River Periyar by ELEFAN 1 superimposed on the restructured length frequency diagram (Lα = 422mm, K = 0.55 yr-1 and Rn = 0.255)

Catch curve

In (N/ t)

1 2 Relative age (years-tø)

K year -1

Male

388

0.51

409

4.89

Female

400

0.63

314

5.00

Pooled

422

0.55

255

4.99

Figure 2. Growth curve of male population of Horabagrus brachysoma from River Periyar by ELEFAN 1 superimposed on the restructured length frequency diagram (Lα = 388mm, K = 0.51 yr-1 and Rn = 0.325)

Lα mm

Figure 5. Length converted catch curve of pooled population of Horabagrus brachysoma in River Periyar (Z from catch curve = 5.64; M = 1.04; F = 4.60; E (F/Z) = 0.82)

years were estimated to be 188mm, 287mm, 340mm, 368mm and 383mm, respectively. For the pooled population (combined sexes), the value of t0 was found to be –0.0115. Fig. 4 provides the FiSAT output of restructured length frequency data of pooled population of H. brachysoma in Periyar River with superimposed growth curve fitted with highest levels of Rn. The VBGF in terms of pooled H. brachysoma population was expressed as Lt = 422 [1 - exp-0.55(t +0.0115)]. The lengths attained by pooled H. brachysoma following VBGF equation at the end of one, two, three, four and five years were estimated to be 180mm, 282mm, 341mm, 376mm and 395mm, respectively. Mortality The FISAT output of mortality estimates of pooled population of H. brachysoma in Periyar River by catch curve method is depicted in Fig. 5. The total mortality (Z) was estimated to be 5.64 yr-1 at a cut off length of 240mm. The estimates of natural mortality (M) were determined as 1.04 yr-1. The values of fishing mortality coefficient (F) and exploitation rate (E) were worked out as 4.60 yr-1 and 0.82 yr-1, respectively. The optimum exploitation length (Lopt) was worked out as 259mm. Using the length converted catch curve method, the estimates of probabilities of capture were L25 = 232mm, L50 = 260mm and L75 = 288 mm (Fig. 6) and the Lc was found to be 110mm. These values were subsequently used as inputs for relative Y/R of Beverton & Holt (1957, 1966) . The Lc/Lα and M/K values used for Y/R analysis were 0.2606 and 1.8909 respectively. The relative yield per recruit and biomass per recruit in H. brachysoma is presented in Fig. 7. The relative Y/R reached a maximum at an exploitation rate of 0.5744 yr-1 and thereafter decreased with an increase in the exploitation rate. It may be noted that the present exploitation rate E (0.82) has clearly exceeded the optimum exploitation rate of Emax = 0.5744. The values of E0.1 and E0.5 were estimated as 0.5538 and

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.5 .4 .3 .2 .1

2 1.5 1 .5 0

110

150 190 Length classes (mm)

230

Figure 6. Probabilities of capture pattern of Horabagrus brachysoma from Periyar River

0.3333, respectively. The results of length-based virtual population analysis showed that F increases to a maximum of 2.7921 at a body size of 240–260 mm (Fig. 8). The catch increases substantially from 160– 180 mm size groups and attains maximum at 240–260 mm.

Discussion Length-Weight Relationship Exponential value of the length-weight relationship ‘b’ in H. brachysoma from Periyar River followed the cubes law indicating an isometric growth pattern, similar to the observations made by Kumar et al. (1999) from Achenkovil and Ali et al. (2008) from Pampa rivers. Nevertheless, in Vembanad Lake, H. 6

.25 .5 .75 Exploitation rate

.6 .5 .4 .3 .2 .1 0

.25 .5 .75 Exploitation rate

brachysoma showed an acute negative isometric growth pattern with ‘b’ values in the ranges of 1.7616 (for males) and 1.9441 (for females) (Prasad et al. 2005). This negative growth pattern of the Yellow Catfish in Vembanad Lake was attributed to the poor environmental conditions prevalent in the lake ecosystem, especially the high level of pollution coupled with poor availability of food items. Growth Horabagrus brachysoma is known to grow to a maximum size of 450mm (Talwar & Jhingaran 1991). However, the maximum size of this species that was obtained from the exploited stock in the Periyar during this study was 340mm. The dominant size class of H. brachysoma exploited from the river (170–250 mm) is more or less similar to those from 6

110

210

Figure 7. Relative yield per recruit and biomass per recruit of Horabagrus brachysoma from Periyar River (Lα = 422mm; Lc / Lα = 0.260 and M / K = 1.89)

catch Nat. losses survivors fishing mortality

.8 .7

330

Fishing mortality

.7 .6

2.5 Rel. biomass/recruit

Populaation (N.10^9)

1 .9

3 Rel. yield/recruit (10^2)

Probability of capture

1 .9

Length classes

Figure 8. Length based virtual population analysis of Horabagrus brachysoma from Periyar River 2338

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Vembanad Lake (160–300 mm) (Sreeraj et al. 2007). In general, H. brachysoma exploited from various parts of Kerala belonged to more or less the same size class. Assuming that the fish grows throughout its life, L∞ is the largest theoretical mean length that it could attain in its natural habitat and K is the speed with which it grows towards this final size (Etim et al. 1999). Growth comparison is a multivariate problem that must take into consideration both the growth rate (K) and the asymptotic size (Lά). Thus, we used the overall growth performance index ø (Pauly & Munro 1984) as it meets these criteria, is easy to compute and exhibits the least variance when compared with other alternative indices. The growth performance index value (ø) of 4.99 observed in the present study is significantly higher than that obtained for many tropical freshwater catfish species including those belonging to the families Schilbeidae (ø between 2.18 and 2.78) (Etim et al. 1999), Claroteidae (ø = 2.32) (Abowei & Davies 2009) and Synodontidae (ø = 3.09) (Ofori-Danson et al. 2001). As phi prime (ø’) is largely considered to be a species-specific parameter with their values being similar within related groups or taxa, the significantly high ø value observed for H. brachysoma is an interesting observation. The maximum size that H. brachysoma attains during its life is 422mm and the life span estimated from the equation tmax = 3/K (Pauly 1983) is 5.45 years. The comparatively low life span and high growth performance index of H. brachysoma is uncharacteristic of freshwater catfishes, which are generally considered to be slow growing. Mortality The total mortality (Z) and natural mortality (M) of H. brachysoma in the Periyar River were computed as 5.64 yr-1 and 1.04 yr-1 respectively. Natural mortality being positively correlated with growth rates (Isaac & Ruffino 1996) was higher in H. brachysoma when compared to slow growing species of catfish such as Clarotes laticeps (0.87) (Abowei & Davies 2009), Schilbe intermedius (0.81) (Etim et al. 1999) and S. mystus (0.28) (Kolding et al. 1992). The exploitation rate (E) is an index used to assess if a stock is overfished, on the assumption that optimal value of E is equal to 0.5. Computed current exploitation rate E (0.82) is far higher than the optimum exploitation rate Emax (0.5744) indicating that H. brachysoma populations in Periyar River are being overexploited. Although the Yellow

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Catfish has a longevity of 5.45 years, the exploited populations from river Periyar are constituted by the year 1 class. H. brachysoma in Periyar is therefore caught before they grow large enough to contribute substantially to the stock biomass, thus demonstrating growth fishing. Life history-exploitation relationship The size at first maturity for H. brachysoma in Periyar River was found to be 176.7 mm for females and 196mm for males (Chandran 2009). During the present study, it was observed that the exploited population of H. brachysoma in the Periyar during 2005 was constituted by individuals ranging in size from 112 to 340 mm, and that the fishery was dominated by individuals in the size range 170 to 250 mm in both sexes. The fact that immature individuals of H. brachysoma are also fished out from the river indicates that recruitment fishing is taking place, damaging the reproductive potential and reducing the spawning stock of the species. Capture of small fish before they mature and breed is also known to lead to a reduction of fisher productivity and profit (Issac & Ruffino 1996). Conservation and Management Currently the fishery for H. brachysoma in Periyar River appears to be unsustainable as is evident from the high rates of exploitation and the occurrence of growth and recruitment fishing. Such unsustainable exploitation levels of catfish in small-scale inland fisheries have been recorded from Volta Lake in Ghana with Hemisyondontis membranaceus (Ofori-Danson et al. 2001) and Cross River, Nigeria with S. intermidius (Etim et al. 1999). Being an open access fishery devoid of any management plan, the fishery for the endangered Yellow Catfish in Periyar is vulnerable to collapse if management interventions are not planned and put into practice in the immediate future. Although regulating total harvest could be the single most important management strategy for protecting H. brachysoma stocks, implementation of a plan to reduce fishing effort in an artisanal subsistence fishery is nearly impossible. This is especially so in a region which has no history of any fisheries management in inland waters. Management strategies for H. brachysoma in Periyar should hence be based on a combination of different technical measures such

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as restrictions on gear, enforcement of size limits and implementation of closed seasons. In order to allow Yellow Catfish juveniles to reach sexual maturity before they are subjected to fishing mortality, a minimum size limit needs to be set at a size greater than the mean size at first reproduction. In the present scenario, a minimum catch size limit of 200mm can be enforced so as to prevent recruitment overfishing. Setting of size limits should also be supplemented with restriction on the mesh size of the gill nets. Currently, the fishers in Periyar use set gill nets with mesh sizes between 25 and 80 mm, resulting in the capture of small-sized juveniles that are below the size at maturity. A minimum mesh size of 160–180 mm should therefore, be mandatory for gill nets used by fishermen targeting H. brachysoma. If suitable gear restrictions are effectively implemented, there is little chance that the fishery will come in contact with the animals to be avoided (immature juveniles) (Charles 2001). Another effective solution for the protection of H. brachysoma in Periyar can be through the use of closed seasons. Similar to the trawling ban (seasonal closure) which has been effectively enforced in the marine waters of Kerala for many years, a closed season starting from the month of May until August should be put into practice in the riverine system. These months are known to be the spawning seasons of H. brachysoma in the major rivers of Kerala including Periyar (Chandran 2009). This closed season will invariably safeguard the spawning process and bring to an end the capture of ripe females. Management of riverine fisheries in Kerala has received little or no attention in the past with traditional fishing communities in Kerala often maintaining a relationship of conflict or accommodation with state institutions in fisheries management. Currently, there exists a lack of mutual trust between formal institutions and the traditional riverine fishing communities in Kerala. Formal institutional arrangements have lacked the participation as well as representation of traditional riverine fishing communities (Santha 2007). It is therefore apparent that this top-down and centralized decision making process has undermined the legitimacy and efficacy of fisheries management plans in the region. Therefore, only an organized effort involving the fisher communities can help in achieving success with the fisheries management plans that have 2340

been suggested for H. brachysoma in Periyar. As in the case of H. brachysoma, it is also possible that other commercially important and threatened fish species such as Hypselobarbus curmuca, Hypselobarbus kolus and Tor khudree which are targeted by artisanal fishers in different reaches of the Periyar may also be under significant fishing pressures. Hence, studies need to be directed at assessing the dynamics of exploited populations of these threatened species for urgent management interventions. Smallscale fisheries have many features that make them vulnerable to collapse, including overfishing, excess capacity, distortions in markets, climate change (Andrew et al. 2007) and ineffective governance (Berkes et al. 2001). They have remained one of the most poorly understood fishery systems in the world, especially in developing countries. Management of resources in small-scale artisanal fisheries has remained a challenge worldwide, largely due to the scarcity of data on population, exploitation patterns and threats. The results of the current study—the first such work on the dynamics of an exploited fish population in a small-scale fishery in Kerala—could provide the much needed input for policy makers and government institutions in the region to develop and implement management strategies to improve equity and sustainability of freshwater artisanal fisheries in Kerala. References Abowei, J.F.N. & A.O. Davies (2009). Some population parameters of Clarotes laticeps (Rupell, 1829) from the freshwater reaches of Lower Nun River, Niger Delta, Nigeria. American Journal of Scientific Research 2: 10–19. Ali, A., G. Prasad, L.R. Chandran, N.K. Balasubramaniam & R. Raghavan (2008). Weight-length relationship of the Asian Sun Catfish Horabagrus brachysoma (Gunther, 1864) (Siluriformes: Horabagridae) from the Western Ghats rivers of Kerala, S. India. Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 38: 41–44. Ali, A., G. Prasad & R. Raghavan (2007). Threatened fishes of the world: Horabagrus brachysoma (Gunther) (Bagridae). Environmental Biology of Fishes 78: 221 Allan, J.D., R. Abell., Z. Hogan, C. Ravenga, W.B. Taylor, R.L. Welcomme & K. Winemiller (2005). Over fishing in inland waters. Bioscience 55: 1041–1051. Ama-Abasi, D., S. Holzloehner & U. Enin (2004). The dynamics of the exploited population of Ethmalosa fimbriata (Bowdich, 1825, Clupeidae) in the Cross river Estuary and

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management: a study on social interfaces in a riverine fisheries setting in Kerala, India. Natural Resources Forum 31: 61–70. smakhtin V., M. arunachalam, s. Behera, a. chatterjee, s das, P. Gautam, G.d. Joshi., K.G. sivaramakrishnan & K.s. unni (2007). Developing procedures for assessment of ecological status of Indian river basins in the context of environmental water requirements. Research Report 114, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Battaramulla, Sri Lanka. sparre, P. & s.c. Venema (1992). Introduction to tropical fish stock assessment. Part 1. Manual. FAO Fisheries Technical Paper No. 306 1 Rev. 1, 376 pp sreeraj, n., r. raghavan & G. Prasad (2007). Some aspects of the fishery of the threatened Yellow Catfish, Horabagrus brachysoma, from Vembanad Lake with a note on their landings at Vaikom, Kerala, India. Zoos’ Print Journal 22 (4): 2665–2666. talwar, P.K. & a.G. Jhingran (1991). Inland fishes of India and Adjacent Countries—Vol. I & II. Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 1158pp. von Bertalanffy, l. (1934). Untersuchungen über die Gesetzlichkeit of Wachstums I. Allgemeine Grundlagen DER Theory; mathematische und physiologische Gesetzlichkeiten of Wachstums EIB Wassertieren. Arch. Entwicklungsmech 131: 613–652. von Bertalanffy, l. (1938). A quantitative theory of organic growth. Human Biology 10: 181–213. Wei, Q., f. Ke, J. Zhang, P. Zhuang., J. luo, & r. Zhou (1997). Biology, fisheries and conservation of sturgeons and paddlefish in China. Environmental Biology of Fishes 48: 241–255.

Author Details: G. Prasad works on diversity, distribution and conservation of freshwater fishes and aquatic insects of the Western Ghats; anvar ali is interested in research on taxonomy, biology and ecology of freshwater fishes; M. HarikrisHnan works on sustainable fisheries and aquaculture; rajeev raGHavan is interested in research that addresses the connectivity between freshwater biodiversity, conservation and livelihoods in Western Ghats. Author Contribution: GP, AA and RR designed the study; AA collected the data; MH analysed the data; RR and GP wrote the manuscript. Acknowledgements: The study was funded by the Kerala State Science Technology and Environment Council (KSTEC), Government of Kerala, India. The authors thank the many local fishers of Kalady, Angadikkadavu and Manjaly for their help during the sampling. The authors are also grateful to the Subject Editor for providing inputs and suggesting necessary changes that greatly improved the manuscript.

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JoTT Paper

4(2): 2343–2352

Population variations in the Fungoid Frog Hylarana malabarica (Anura: Ranidae) from northern Western Ghats of India Anand Padhye 1, Anushree Jadhav 2, Manawa Diwekar 3 & Neelesh Dahanukar 4 Department of Zoology, Abasaheb Garware College, Karve Road, Pune, Maharashtra 411004 India Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Sai Trinity, Sus Road, Pashan, Pune, Maharashtra 411021, India Email: 1 adpadhye@gmail.com (corresponding author), 2 anushreejadhav@gmail.com, 3 dmanawa@iiserpune.ac.in, 4 n.dahanukar@iiserpune.ac.in 1,2 3,4

Abstract: Widely distributed species often show interpopulation variation. Studying such variations can be helpful in understanding contributing factors and distinguishing widespread species and species complexes. We studied six populations of Hylarana malabarica distributed along the northern Western Ghats of India using morphometric and genetic analysis. Of 24 size-adjusted morphometric characters, 14 were significantly different among populations. Hierarchical clustering and discriminant analysis of morphometric characters suggested that the six populations form at least four distinct clusters. Analysis of morphometric data was supported by genetic polymorphism data obtained by the Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) method. Since the similarity and variation observed among populations was independent of their spatial distribution, it is possible that this widely-distributed species may be a species complex. Keywords: Genetic variation, Hylarana malabarica, morphological variation, Western Ghats.

Date of publication (online): 26 February 2012 Date of publication (print): 26 February 2012 ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print) Editor: Annemarie Ohler Manuscript details: Ms # o2863 Received 06 July 2011 Final received 06 December 2011 Finally accepted 16 January 2012 Citation: Padhye, A., A. Jadhav, M. Diwekar & N. Dahanukar (2012). Population variations in the Fungoid Frog Hylarana malabarica (Anura: Ranidae) from northern Western Ghats of India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(2): 2343–2352. Copyright: © Anand Padhye, Anushree Jadhav, Manawa Diwekar & Neelesh Dahanukar 2012. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non-profit purposes, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication. Author Details and Acknowledgements: See end of this article. Author Contribution: AP designed the study. AP and AJ collected specimens and data for morphometry. AJ and MD performed RAPD analysis. ND performed statistical analysis. AP and ND wrote the paper.

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INTRODUCTION The high level of endemism among vertebrate and plant species has led the Western Ghats of India and Sri Lanka to be considered a hotspot of global biological diversity (Myers et al. 2000). The Western Ghats are rich in amphibian fauna, and while the first species was discovered in the early 1800s the discovery trend for Western Ghats amphibians has yet to reach a plateau (Aravind et al. 2007). A recent record of a new frog family from the Western Ghats (Biju & Bossuyt 2003) reflects the limitation of our knowledge of the amphibian diversity of this important biogeographic region (Hedges 2003), as do recent descriptions of new amphibian species (Gururaja et al. 2007; Kuramoto et al. 2007; Biju & Bossuyt 2009; Zachariah et al. 2011). Recent investigations of Western Ghats amphibians have shown that several populations contain cryptic species revealed by in-depth study (Kuramoto et al. 2007). The broad application of molecular techniques to phylogenetic reconstruction has been used effectively to unveil haplotypes or morphologically cryptic species (Kuramoto et al. 2007; Biju et al. 2009). Discovering these cryptic species is important for our understanding of species richness and essential for the design and implementation of conservation action plans (Bickford et al. 2007; McLeod 2010). This is especially true for species which show wide distribution, which may turn out to be species complexes (Inger et al. 2009). The Fungoid Frog Hylarana malabarica (Tschudi, 1838) is widely distributed in peninsular India (Daniel 2000; Padhye & Ghate 2002), Assam and Meghalaya (Dutta 1997). Because of its wide distribution the species is categorized under Least Concern in the IUCN Red List

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of Threatened Species (Biju et al. 2004). Despite its widespread distribution, H. malabarica shows patchy distribution in the northern Western Ghats. In our initial studies we observed variation among the individuals from different populations of H. malabarica from the northern Western Ghats, and in the current work we have studied morphological and genetic variation among six populations of H. malabarica collected from six isolated locations. Our analysis, based on morphological and genetic studies, indicates that the six populations of H. malabarica form at least four separate clusters, raising the possibility that H. malabarica could be a species complex.

METHODS Sampling Six study sites were identified (Table 1, Image 1). Field visits were conducted during the breeding season (July to September) in 2009 and 2010. While a number of individuals were collected for morphometry, only two to three individuals were brought back to the laboratory; remaining individuals were released back in the same habitat. Individuals brought back to the laboratory were etherized and fixed in 100% ethanol. The tissues (liver and muscles) from these specimens were used for DNA extraction. Amboli and Dhamapur specimens were collected from the same congregation, while Velneshwar, Tamhini, Kolvan and Ghatghar specimens were collected from different places in the same area. Fifteen specimens collected during the

200N

190N

180N

N 170N

160N

150N 720E

Image 1. Study area. 2344

730E

740E

750E

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Table 1. Sampling localities. Locality

Latitude and Longitude

Altitude (m ASL)

Number of individuals

Amboli (A)

15.7960N & 73.9980E

698.60

Dhamapur (D)

16.0380N& 73.5960E

19.50

Velneshwar (V)

17.4300N& 73.2120E

84.47

Tamhini (T)

18.4470N& 73.4310E

619.96

Kolvan (K)

18.5830N& 73.5330E

609.60

Ghatghar (G)

19.2870N& 73.7000E

745.84

Table 2. ANOVA depicting the size adjusted characters that are significantly different in six populations. Significant P values are depicted in bold. Variable

F5,58

Head length (HL)

0.510

0.768

Head width (HW)

4.204

0.003

Nostril to snout distance (NSD)

7.918

< 0.0001

Inter narial distance (IND)

15.254

< 0.0001

Eye diameter (ED)

1.293

0.281

Inter orbital distance (IOD)

3.066

0.017*

Width of upper eyelid (WUE)

6.672

< 0.0001

survey are deposited in the collection of Department of Zoology, Abasaheb Garware College, Pune, under the accession numbers AGCZRL Amphibia 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 35 and 36.

Tympanum diameter vertical (TDV)

10.423

< 0.0001

Tympanum diameter horizontal (TDH)

19.855

< 0.0001

Morphometric analysis Morphometry was done in the field with the help of digital Vernier calipers (AreospaceÂŽ, least count 0.01mm). Morphometric measurements were taken for snout-vent length and 24 different characters (Table 2). Since females were poorly represented in our samples we considered only males for morphometric analysis to avoid any effect of sexual dimorphism in the morphological analysis. Since different individuals differed in their snout to vent length and all other morphometric measurements were strongly correlated with the snout-vent length, we first adjusted the morphological measurements of all the individuals for mean snout to vent length so as to remove the size and shape effect. We used allometric adjustment (Lleonart et al. 2000) given by the formula, Madj = Mobs (SL0/SL)b, where, Madj is the size adjusted length of a morphological character, M is the observed length of the character, SL0 is the obs mean snout to vent length of all the individuals, SL is the snout to vent length of the given individual, and, b is the allometric exponent of power function relation between the character and the standard length of all individuals (in other words it is the slope of the line between logMobs versus logSL). Efficiency of size adjustment was assessed by testing the significance of correlation between transformed variables and standard length, which was not significantly different from zero. This corrected morphometric data of 24 characters was used for further statistical analysis. Since allometric adjustment nullifies both the size and shape bias the resultant data was independent of the

Tympanum to eye distance (TED)

6.034

0.000

Forelimb length (FL)

8.433

< 0.0001

Finger 1 length (F1L)

2.159

0.073

Finger 2 length (F2L)

1.638

0.166

Finger 3 length (F3L)

2.874

0.023*

Finger 4 length (F4L)

3.955

0.004

Hind limb length (HLL)

5.877

0.000

Femur length (FeL)

3.574

0.007

Tibia length (TiL)

23.421

< 0.0001

Foot length (FoL)

2.951

0.020*

Toe 1 length (T1L)

1.474

0.214

Toe 2 length (T2L)

1.074

0.385

Toe 3 length (T3L)

0.283

0.921

Toe 4 length (T4L)

7.084

< 0.0001

Toe 5 length (T5L)

9.396

< 0.0001

* Not significant after sequential Bonferroni correction

ontogenic variations among the individuals. We performed ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) to understand which standardized morphometric characters differed among the populations. Since multiple tests were performed on the same data we applied sequential Bonferroni correction to the a values wherever applicable. Variables which where significant after sequential Bonferroni correction were further analyzed using unpaired t test to find out differences between populations. We performed hierarchical cluster analysis based on mean values of significantly different standardized characters for a given population to understand the general pattern in similarity among the populations. Euclidian distances between populations were calculated and Wardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s method was used for clustering. Discriminant analysis (DA) was performed on the

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significantly different characters to check whether the populations form distinct clusters as well as to identify the discriminating characters (Legendre & Legendre 1998). DA supposes priory groups, which in the current case populations situated in different geographical locations. DA explicitly attempts to model the difference between the classes of data by extracting factors that maximize inter class variation and minimize intra class variations. DA is therefore, more appropriate choice than principle component analysis (PCA), which gives equal weight to all the available variables because of which it cannot reveal the differences among closely related clusters in less number of dimensions. However, since DA considers prior groups, to test whether our analysis is biased by this grouping we tested for intra-group homogeneity by two methods. First, the null hypothesis, which states that the mean vectors of the six populations are equal, was tested using Pillai’s trace (Harris 2001). Second, we calculated Mahalanobis distances (Harris 2001) among the individuals and computed Fisher’s distances between six populations as the distance between the centroids of the clusters, divided by the sum of their standard deviations to check if the clusters formed by six populations are significantly different. Statistical analysis was performed in Microsoft EXCEL® and Systat 12®. DNA Extraction and Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis The tissue was digested at 50°C for two hours using the extraction buffer (0.1M NaCl, 0.05 M Tris-HCl, 0.01M EDTA, 1%SDS) with 15µl Proteinase K (20mg/ ml). DNA was then extracted using the conventional phenol-chloroform method (Sambrook et al. 1989). Polymerase chain reaction was performed to randomly amplify the polymorphic DNA. Primers used for the study were based on Wei et al. (2001). Primers that gave consistent results under repeated experiments are given in the Table 3. The PCR amplifications were conducted in 20µl reaction volume containing 2µl of template DNA, 2µl of 10X reaction buffer (100 mM Tris pH9.0, 500 mM KCl, 15 mM MgCl2, 0.1% Gelatin), 1µl of 25mM MgCl2, 1µl of 10mM dNTPs, 1µl of primer, 0.8µl Taq polymerase and 11.2µl sterile distilled water. The cycling profile used was 5 min at 950C, and 35 cycles of 1 min at 950C, 1 min at 300C and 2 min at 700C, followed by 10 min at 720C. Amplified 2346

Table 3: Primers used in this study. Primer name

Primer sequence 5’ —> 3’

Rm1

CTGGGCACGA

Number of bands 8

Rm2

TTCCGCCACC

Rm4

CCGCTACCGA

Rm5

CCTTTCCCTC

Rm6

ACGCCAGAGG

Rm12

TTAACCCGGC

Rm13

GAGCACTAGC

Rm14

GAAGCGCGAT

Rm15

CAGCGAACTA

Rm17

ACCGTGCGTC

DNA fragments were checked using 1% agarose gel electrophoresis and further analyzed. Presence and absence of a given fragment amplified in RAPD was represented by ‘1’ and ‘0’ characters respectively. Only clear and reproducible bands were recorded as ‘1’. No or non-reproducible bands were recorded as ‘0’. We used Nei and Li (NL) coefficient for comparison between the RAPD patterns between diffident individuals (Lamboy 1994). The NL coefficient, which denotes a value of the similarity between two samples (Nei & Li 1979), is given by the formula, NL = 2a/(b+c), where a is the number of similar bands from two samples, and b and c are the total numbers of bands from each sample. Based on the NL similarity coefficient, which ranged between 0 and 1, we performed cluster analysis using five methods, viz., single linkage, complete linkage, flexible linkage, unweight pair-group average and weight pair-group average (Sneath & Sokal 1973) and the most consistent tree topology was chosen for plotting.

RESULTS Morphometric analysis Out of total 24 size-adjusted morphological characters, 14 were significantly different for six populations, while another three were different but could not qualify as significant after Bonferroni correction (Table 2). Differences in these 14 characters between six populations are given in Table 4. Tamhini Population differed from all the other populations in three characters namely, toe 5 length, hind limb

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Table 4. Population wise differences in the size adjusted morphometric characters which were significant in ANOVA after Bonferroni correction. P values of unpaitred t test are provided. Significant P values after Bonferroni correction are depicted in bold. Contrast

HW**

IND

WUE

V vs G*

0.000

< 0.0001

0.477

0.001

TED

F4L

HLL

FeL

TiL

T4L

T5L

0.213

0.900

0.023

0.069

0.547

0.779

0.197

0.150

V vs T

0.004

0.078

< 0.0001

0.499

0.001

0.003

0.010

0.002

0.831

0.001

0.006

V vs K

0.002

0.203

0.737

0.177

V vs A

0.001

< 0.0001

0.878

0.099

0.832

< 0.0001

0.196

0.856

0.004

0.236

0.313

0.748

0.441

0.693

0.416

0.703

0.008

0.033

0.015

0.986

0.206

0.806

0.600

V vs D

0.030

0.006

0.887

0.230

0.222

0.767

0.271

0.307

0.396

0.002

0.931

0.009

< 0.0001

0.641

D vs G

0.018

0.016

0.489

0.992

< 0.0001 < 0.0001 < 0.0001

0.627

0.510

0.745

0.043

0.067

< 0.0001

0.055

D vs T

0.157

0.643

< 0.0001

0.093

0.069

0.001

< 0.0001

0.000

< 0.0001

0.003

0.000

0.122

0.004

D vs K

0.149

0.130

0.576

0.004

0.947

< 0.0001

0.009

0.255

0.906

0.181

0.091

< 0.0001

0.670

0.507

0.060

0.032

0.000

0.367

0.929

0.071

< 0.0001

0.207

0.116

0.259

0.030

0.732

0.037

0.613

0.926

0.314

0.599

< 0.0001

0.077

0.017

0.000

0.006

0.003

< 0.0001 < 0.0001

0.035

0.377

0.158

0.873

0.513

0.136

0.391

0.039

0.250

D vs A

0.108

0.006

0.705

0.000

A vs G

0.223

0.701

0.332

0.014

TDV

TDH

< 0.0001 < 0.0001

A vs T

0.760

0.018

< 0.0001

0.483

0.002

A vs K

0.938

0.000

0.811

0.864

0.528

0.002

K vs G

0.295

0.001

0.285

0.018

< 0.0001

0.054

0.013

0.759

0.697

0.422

0.739

0.547

K vs T

0.823

0.475

< 0.0001

0.605

0.001

0.418

0.109

0.002

0.005

< 0.0001

0.009

0.002

T vs G

0.479

0.022

< 0.0001

0.012

0.123

0.017

0.000

0.002

0.022

< 0.0001

0.007

0.014

< 0.0001 < 0.0001

< 0.0001 < 0.0001 0.625

< 0.0001 < 0.0001

< 0.0001 < 0.0001 0.004

0.000

* Locality abbreviation as per Table 1; ** Character abbreviation as per Table 2.

length and inter narial distance. Even though, there was no particular character in which the Dhamapur population differed from all others, this population could be distinguished by a combination of characters: inter-narial distance, width of upper eyelid, tympanum diameter vertical, tympanum diameter horizontal, tympanum to eye distance, forelimb length, hindlimb length, tibia length, toe 4 length and toe 5 length. A maximum number of characters were different between the Tamhini and Dhamapur populations, followed by Tamhini and Velneshwar. Least differences were seen between Kolvan and Ghatghar and Velneshwar and Amboli. Image 2 shows individuls from different populations used in the analysis. A dendrogram based on the mean values of the standardized characters for a population is shown in Fig. 1. Tamhini and Dhamapur populations were distinctly different from other populations, while Kolvan and Ghatghar, and Amboli and Velneshwar shared more similarity with each other. Discriminant Analysis extracted five factors, out of which first three factors explained around 86.19% of the total variation in the data. The means vectors of the six populations were significantly different (Pillai’s trace = 3.439, F70,220 = 6.923, P < 0.0001), indicating that the six populations formed six significantly different clusters (Fig. 2). Higher values of variables such as inter-narial distance followed by toe 3 length and eye

Dhamapur Kolvan Ghatghar Amboli Velneshwar Tamhini 0

12 15 18 21 Euclidian distance

Figure 1. Dendrogram based on mean values of 24 standardized morphological characters for six populations.

diameter separated Tamhini from other populations, while higher values of variables like width of upper eyelid, tympanum diameter horizontal and forelimb length separated Dhamapur population from all the rest of the populations on the first two axes (Table 5). Among the remaining four populations, Kolvan and Ghatghar had negative factor loading on the third canonical axis, while Amboli and Velneshwar had positive factor loading (Fig. 2a). Fisher’s distances between centroids of all six populations were significant indicating that these six populations formed different clusters (Fig. 2b). However, Fisher’s distance between

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Ghatghar Kolvan Tamhini Amboli Velneshwar Dhamapur

Figure 2. Discriminant Analysis of size adjusted morphological data for six populations. (a) Factor loading of individuals on the first three discriminant axes and (b) Fisher’s distances between centroids of the six populations (blue coloured cells) and P values for Fisher’s distances (red coloured cells).

centroids of Amboli and Velneswar was the lowest (3.205) while Fisher’s distances between Tamhini and all other populations were very high (Fig. 2b). Standardized factor coefficient (Table 5) suggests that on the third axis head width, tympanum diameter vertical, tympanum diameter horizontal had high positive factor loading, while hindlimb length, forelimb length, inter-orbital distance and nostril to snout distance had negative factor loading with high magnitude. Thus these characters separate Amboli and Velneshwar from, Kolvan and Ghatghar populations.

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RAPD analysis Out of the five methods of cladistic analysis used: single linkage, complete linkage, flexible linkage, unweight pair-group average and weight pair-group average, the last three methods gave consistent tree topology while the first two gave two different tree topologies. A consensus tree based on NL coefficient and flexible linkage, unweight pair-group average and weight pair-group average methods is shown in Image 3. RAPD analysis revealed four different clusters. Tamhini population had the least genetic similarity with all other populations, while Dhamapur formed a separate cluster. Among the remaining four

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Image 2. Voucher specimens from different populations used for genetic analysis. (a) Amboli, (b) Dhamapur, (c) Velneshwar, (d) Ghatghar, (e) Tamhini, and (f) Kolvan.

populations, Kolvan and Ghatghar formed one cluster while Amboli and Velneshwar formed another cluster (Image 3). This pattern is similar to the pattern depicted in the morphometric data (Fig. 1) and hence supports the results of morphometric analyses.

DISCUSSION Both morphological and genetic analysis revealed that the six populations in the current study lie in at least four different clusters: (1) Tamhini, (2) Dhamapur, (3) Kolvan and Ghatghar, and (4) Amboli

and Velneshwar. The morphological differences between the populations are likely to be independent of sexual dimorphism, as we have considered only males in the population. Further, we nullified the effect of ontogenetic allometry as we applied allometric adjustments to the data to nullify any size and shape bias as suggested by Lleonart et al. (2000). Further, morphological as well as genetic similarity and differences among the six isolated populations were not dependent on their geographical distances (Table 1). Kolvan and Ghatghar populations shared more similarity (Fig. 1, Image 3) though they are separated by 80km. Where as Kolvan and Tamhini do not show

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Table 5. Discriminant analysis statistics and standardized canonical coefficients for the first three canonical variates. DA axis1

DA axis2

DA axis3

Eigenvalue

7.313

5.883

1.864

Discrimination (% variation)

41.852

33.666

10.668

Cumulative % variation

41.852

75.517

86.186

Head width

0.088

0.628

0.448

Nostril to snout distance

0.172

-0.016

-0.211

Inter-narial distance

-0.073

-0.963

0.038

Width of upper eyelid

0.474

-0.891

-0.335

Tympanum diameter vertical

-0.024

-0.684

0.015

Tympanum diameter horizontal

0.243

0.024

0.786

Tympanum to eye distance

-0.066

0.817

0.174

Forelimb length

0.075

0.313

-0.157

Finger 4 length

-0.169

0.013

-0.233

Hindlimb length

0.236

-0.171

-0.716

Femur length

0.147

0.214

0.311

Tibia length

-1.480

-0.055

0.414

Toe 4 length

1.049

0.177

0.086

Toe 5 length

-0.424

0.693

0.049

any similarity (Fig. 1, Image 3) yet are 20km apart. Similarly, Amboli population shared more similarity with Velneshwar population than with Dhamapur population, even though Amboli and Dhamapur are just 44km apart while Amboli and Velneshwar are 182km apart. Further, Amboli and Velneshwar have a large difference in altitude (Table 1), as Velneshwar is on the coastline while Amboli is on the crest line of the Western Ghats (which form a geographical barrier between these two populations). There is also a difference of 20 in the latitudinal distribution of these two populations (Table1). Such kind of pattern suggests possibility of more than one species that are together considered as Hylarana malabarica. Recent trends in the discoveries of new species of anurans (Gururaja et al. 2007; Kuramoto et al. 2007; Biju & Bossuyt 2009; Biju et al. 2009; Zachariah et al. 2011) suggests that there are likely to be many more species of anurans still waiting to be described from the Western Ghats of India. The continual increase in the discovery trend of Western Ghats’ amphibians (Aravind et al. 2007), further bolsters this fact. It is possible that several of these species could be cryptic with no apparent easily distinguishable morphological differences (Biju et al. 2009). Such species will require detailed morphological and molecular phylogenetic 2350

a Dhamapur Kolvan Ghatghar Amboli Velneshwar Tamhini 1.00

0.90

0.80 0.70 0.60 0.50 Nei & Li similarity coefficient

0.40

Image 3. RAPD analysis. (a) Consensus tree based on NL coefficient and flexible linkage, unweight pair-group average and weight pair-group average methods (b) RAPD pattern for RM15 and (c) RAPD pattern for RM17. RAPD patterns for populations not considered in the present study are deleted from the right hand side of the gel pictures. Code in the parenthesis is specimen number. M is marker DNA.

studies for establishing their taxonomic status. For example, Kuromoto et al. (2007) described four cryptic species of anuran genus Fejervarya from central Western Ghats. These four species of Fejervarya are not easily distinguishable morphologically but show their distinctness in both detailed morphometric analysis and molecular analysis based on DNA sequencing (Kuromoto et al. 2007; Meenakshi et al. 2010). Our finding of morphological and genetic

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Population variations in the Fungoid Frog

variations in different populations of Hylarana malabarica suggests the possibility of recent events in speciation and presence of cryptic species. However, since genetic studies using RAPD suffers from low reproducibility of results, to bolster our arguments it is essential to study the molecular markers in different populations of H. malabarica. Molecular phylogeny of these different populations will be able to help us in separating the population level variations from the species level variations and help us in studying the monophyly of H. malabarica. Méndez et al. (2004) also suggested similar strategy to reveal the presence of recent speciation in Bufo spinulosus, who conducted similar study on this species. Additionally, ecological studies on these populations using niche modeling method (Raxworthy et al. 2007) will also be interesting and may probably help in resolving the phylogeny of H. malabarica. Rissler & Apodaca (2007) have shown the application of ecological niche modeling in defining cryptic species in Black Salamander Aneides flavipunctatus. Recent trends in the amphibian taxonomy have revealed several lineages of cryptic species (Stuart et al. 2006; Elmer et al. 2007) especially in the wide spread species (Inger et al. 2009; McLead 2010). Understanding this cryptic diversity is essential for species management and conservation (Bickford et al. 2007; McLead 2010). Hylarana malabarica is assessed as Least Concern (Biju et al. 2004) owing to its widespread distribution in India with no major widespread threats. However, if our assertion that the Hylarana malabarica is a species complex with several cryptic species is true, then it is possible that some of the cryptic species might have more restricted distribution and may require immediate conservation attention.

REFRENCES Aravind, N.A., B. Tambat, G. Ravikanth, K.N. Ganeshaiah & R.U. Shaanker (2007). Patterns of species discovery in the Western Ghats, a megadiversity hot spot in India. Journal of Biosciences 32: 781–790. Bickford, D., D.J. Lohman, N.S. Sodhi, P.K. Ng, R. Meier, K. Winker, K.K. Ingram & I. Das (2007). Cryptic species as a window on diversity and conservation. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 22(3): 148–155. Biju, S.D. & F. Bossuyt (2003). New frog family from India

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reveals an ancient biogeographical link with the Seychellus. Nature 425: 711–714. Biju, S.D. & F. Bossuyt (2009). Systematics and phylogeny of Philautus Gistel, 1848 (Anura, Rhacophoridae) in the Western Ghats of India, with descriptions of 12 new species. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 155: 374–444. Biju, S.D., I. Van Bocxlaer, V.B. Giri, S.P. Loader & F. Bossuyt (2009). Two new endemic genera and a new species of toad (Anura: Bufonidae) from the Western Ghats of India. BMC Research Notes 2: 241. Biju, S.D., S. Dutta & R. Inger (2004). Hylarana malabarica. In: IUCN 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.4. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 26 May 2011. Daniel, J.C. (2000). The Book of Indian Reptiles and Amphibians. Bombay Natural History Society and Oxford University Press, 238pp. Dutta, S.K. (1997). Amphibians of India and Sri Lanka (Checklist and Bibliography). Odyssey Publishing House, Bhubaneshwar, Orissa, 234pp. Elmer, K.R., J.A. Dávila & S.C. Lougheed (2007). Cryptic diversity and deep divergence in an upper Amazonian Leaflitter Frog, Eleutherodactylus ockendeni. BMC Evolutionary Biology 7: 247. Gururaja, K.V., K.P. Dinesh, M.J. Palot, C. Radhakrishnan & T.V. Ramachandra (2007). A new species of Philautus Gistel (Amphibia: Anura: Rhacophoridae) from southern Western Ghats, India. Zootaxa 1621: 1–16. Harris, R.J. (2001). A Primer for Multivariate Statistics. Third Edition. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, London, 609pp. Hedges, S.B. (2003). The coelancanth of frogs. Nature 425: 669–670. Inger, R.F., B.L. Stuart & D.T. Iskandar (2009). Systematics of a widespread Southeast Asian frog, Rana chalconota (Amphibia: Anura: Ranidae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 155: 123–147. Kuramoto, M., S.H. Joshy, A. Kurabayashi & M. Sumida (2007). The genus Fejervarya (Anura: Ranidae) in central Western Ghats, India, with description of four new cryptic species. Current Herpatalogy 26(2): 81–105. Lamboy, W.F. (1994). Computing genetic similarities using RAPD data: the effects of artifacts. Genome Research 4: 31–47. Legendre, P. & L. Legendre (1998). Numerical Ecology, (Second English Edition). Elsevier, New York, 853pp. Lleonart, J., J. Salat & G. Torres (2000). Removing allometric effects of body size in morphological analysis. Journal of Theoretical Biology 205: 85–93. McLeod, D.S. (2010). Of least concern? Systematics of a cryptic species complex: Limnonectes kuhlii (Amphibia: Anura: Dicroglossidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 56: 991–1000. Meenakshi, K., T. Suraj, S.S. Bhagwati, V.G. Sujith, K. Santhoshkumar & S. George (2010). Molecular resolution of four Species Fejervarya from Western Ghats (India) with

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their intrageneric phylogeny based on COI, Cyt B, 12S and 16S rRNA Genes. Asian Journal of Experimental Bioliological Sciences 194: 782–786 Méndez, M.A. E.R. Soto, C. Correa, A. Veloso, E. Vergara, M. Sallaberry & P. Iturra (2004). Morphological and genetic differentiation among Chilean populations of Bufo spinulosus (Anura: Bufonidae). Revista Chilena de Historia Natural 77: 559–567 Myers, N., R.A. Mittermier, C.G. Mittermier, G.A.B. da Fonescaand & J. Kent (2000). Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature 403: 853–858. Nei, M. & W.H. Li (1979). Mathematical model for study genetic variation in term of restriction endonucleases. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences USA 76: 5269–5273. Padhye, A.D. & H.V. Ghate (2002). An overview of amphibian fauna of Maharashtra State. Zoos’ Print Journal 17(3): 735–740. Raxworthy, C.J., C.M. Ingram, N. Rabibisoa & R.G. Pearson (2007). Applications of ecological niche modeling for species delimitation: a review and empirical evaluation using day geckos (Phelsuma) from Madagascar. Systematic Biology 56(6): 907–923. Rissler, L.J. & J.J. Apodaca (2007). Adding more ecology into species delimitation: ecological niche models and phylogeography help define cryptic species in the Black Salamander (Aneides flavipunctatus). Systematic Biology 56(6): 924–942. Sambrook, J., E.F. Fritsch & T. Maniatis (1989). Molecular Cloning: a laboratory manual—Second Edition. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, New York, 1659pp. Sneath, P.H.A & R.R. Sokal (1973). Numerical Taxonomy. San Francisco, CA, Freeman, 518pp. Stuart, B.L., R.F. Inger & H.K. Voris (2006). High level of cryptic species diversity revealed by sympatric lineages of Southeast Asian forest frogs. Biology Letters 2: 470–474. Wie, L., Z. Fang, Z. Ding, S. Jin, C. Lie & G. Min (2001). Using RAPD method on systematic evolution of four species in anura. Zoological Research 44: 332–336. Zachariah, A., K.P. Dinesh, E. Kunhikrishnan, S. Das, D.V. Raju, C. Radhakrishnan, M.J. Palot & S. Kalesh (2011). Nine new species of frogs of the genus Raorchestes (Amphibia: Anura: Rhacophoridae) from southern Western Ghats, India. Biosystematica 5(1): 25–48.

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Author Details: Anand Padhye is Associate Professor of Zoology in M.E.S. Abasaheb Garware College, Pune. He is a member of the Amphibian Specialist Group of the IUCN. He has published several scientific papers on biodiversity of the northern Western Ghats. Anushree Jadhav has completed her Masters in Biodiversity at Abasaheb Garware College, Department of Biodiversity. Manawa Diwekar is a molecular biologist with special interests in understanding molecular evolution. Neelesh Dahanukar works in ecology and evolutionary biology with an emphasis on statistical and mathematical analysis. Acknowledgement: Authors are thankful to Board of College and University Development (BCUD), Pune University, for funding this project. We thank authorities of IISER for providing the facility for the molecular work. We also thank Principal, Abasaheb Garware College as well as head of the Zoology Department for the infrastructural facilities. Sheetal Shelke, Rohan Pandit, Amod Zambre, Sandesh Apte, Ankur Padhye, Hemant Ogale, Ajit More, Sanjay Khatawkar, Ravindra Gavari, Vitthal Bhoye and Driver Anil Pujari helped us in the field surveys. We thank Dr. H.V. Ghate and Prof. Milind Watve for their valuable suggestions during the work.

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JoTT Communication

4(2): 2353–2362

Garra kalpangi, a new cyprinid fish species (Pisces: Teleostei) from upper Brahmaputra basin in Arunachal Pradesh, India K. Nebeshwar 1, Kenjum Bagra 2 & D.N. Das 3 Centre of Biodiversity, Department of Zoology, Rajiv Gandhi University, Rono Hills, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh 791112, India Department of Zoology, Rajiv Gandhi University, Rono Hills, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh 791112, India Present address: 1 Department of Life Science (Fish Section), Manipur University, Canchipur, Imphal, Manipur 795003, India 2 Arunchal Pradesh Biodiversity Board, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh 791113, India Email: 1 knebeshwar@yahoo.com, 2 bagrakb@gmail.com, 3 dndas321@rediffmail.com (corresponding author) 1,2 3

Date of publication (online): 26 February 2012 Date of publication (print): 26 February 2012 ISSN 0974–7907 (online) | 0974–7893 (print) Editor: K. Rema Devi Manuscript details: Ms # o1703 Received 06 January 2007 Final received 04 May 2011 Finally accepted 08 January 2012 Citation: Nebeshwar, K., K. Bagra & D.N. Das (2011). Garra kalpangi, a new cyprinid fish species (Pisces: Teleostei) from upper Brahmaputra basin in Arunachal Pradesh, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(2): 2353–2362. Copyright: © K. Nebeshwar, Kenjum Bagra & D.N. Das 2012. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non–profit purposes, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication. Author Details: K. Nebeshwar is well versed with fish taxonomy and is actively engaged in exploration of ichthyofauna and description of new taxa in Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. Kenjum Bagra is actively engaged in ichthyofaunal exploration and documentation in Arunachal Pradesh. D.N. Das is engaged in teaching fisheries as well as research and development activities on the subject in the region. Author Contribution: See end of this article Acknowledgement: The authors are grateful to the University Grants Commission, New Delhi for financial assistance. The authors are also very thankful to Dr. B.A. Laskar, Research Assistant, RGU-DCFR collaborative project Rajiv Gandhi University, Arunachal Pradesh and Mr. Lakpa Tamang of G.B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh for their contribution in finalising the manuscript.

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Abstract: A new cyprinid species, Garra kalpangi is described from the Kalpangi River (Brahmaputra basin) in Arunachal Pradesh, India. The species is closely similar to G. gravelyi, G. rotundinasus and G. elongata in having a shared character i.e. a weakly developed proboscis. It is distinguishable from G. gravelyi for the absence of indistinct black spot at the bases of branched dorsal fin rays and lateral stripes on the side of the body. However, G. rotundinasus possesses lateral stripe along the lateral line. Further, the absence of transverse groove at the tip of snout and longitudinal black band in medial coudal fin differentiated it from G. elongata. The detail comparative account of the 16 available species of northeastern India confirmed its distinct diagnosis as a new species under the genus. Accordingly, after thorough investigation, the taxonomic keys for all the available species under the genus from the region have also been erected in this article. Keywords: Freshwater fish, Himalayan foot hill, Kalpangi River, new description.

Introduction The cyprinid fish genus Garra Hamilton, 1822, is a bottom dwelling fish. The genus consists of approximately 70 species in the region from Borneo, southern China and southern Asia through Middle East Asia, Arabian Peninsula and East Africa to West Africa (Zhang & Chen 2002). In the first revision of the genus, adopting Garra Hamilton as the generic name, Hora (1921) described seven new species from the Himalayan foothill drainages, viz. G. annandalei from Assam and streams at the base of the Darjeeling Himalaya, G. abhoyai from neighborhood hill streams of Ukhrul District in Manipur, G. naganensis from Senapati stream in Naga Hills, Assam (now in Manipur), G. prashadi from Malwa Tal, Uttar Pradesh (now in Uttarakhand), G. chaudhurii from Darjeeling District in northern Bengal, G. jenkinsonianum from Sita Nullah, Paresnath Hills in Bengal and G. kempi from Abor Hills, Assam (now in Arunachal Pradesh). Menon (1964) recognized 38 species and kept the species status of G. abhoyai, G. chaudurii, G. prashadi and G. jenkinsonianum as junior synonyms of G. rupecula, G. annandalei, G. lamta and G. mullya, respectively. Other known species in the Himalayan foothills and the adjoining regions draining into the Brahmaputra and Ganga basins include G. rupecula, G. lissorhynchus, G. lamta, G. gotyla, and G. nasuta (Hora Abbreviation: RGUMF – Rajiv Gandhi University Museum of Fishes; MUMF – Manipur University Museum of Fishes; SL – Standard Length; vs. – Versus

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1921; Menon 1964). In subsequent publications (Vishwanath & Sarojnalini 1988; Vishwanath 1993; Kosygin & Vishwanath 1998; Vishwanath & Kosygin 2000; Zhang & Chen 2002; Kullander & Fang 2004; Vishwanath & Shanta 2005; Zhang 2006; Vishwanath & Linthoingambi 2008; Nebeshwar et al. 2009) have also described or revalidated or reviewed several species from the Brahmaputra and Chindwin basins in northeastern region, Irrawaddy basin in Myanmar and China. Vishwanath & Linthoingambi (2008) revalidated the species, G. abhoyai from being a junior synonym of G. rupecula. There are seven species of Garra, namely, G. lissorhynchus, G. annandalei, G. gotyla, G. kempi, G. lamta, G. mcclellandi and G. naganensis reported from Arunachal Pradesh (Nath & Dey 2000). Comparison of a species population of the genus Garra having a weakly developed proboscis, collected from the Kalpangi River in Arunachal Pradesh with the species distributed in the Himalayan foothill drainages of northeastern India and the species from the upper Irrawaddy basin in China and the Rakhine states in Myanmar reveals that the species represents an undescribed species, herein described as Garra kalpangi sp. nov. (Fig. 1).

Material and Methods The descriptions are based on formalin preserved specimens. Counts, measurements and terminology follow Kullander & Fang (2004) and measurements were taken from point to point with digital calipers to 0.1mm. Fin rays and numbers of scales were counted under a zoom stereoscopic microscope. Lateral line scales counted from the anterior most scale in contact with the shoulder girdle to the last scale on the caudal fin; lateral transverse scales above lateral line counted from dorsal-fin origin to lateral line obliquely ventrad and caudad and scales below lateral line counted from anal-fin origin to lateral line obliquely dorsad and rostrad. Additional terminology used for description of disc follows Zhang et al. (2002). Other additional measurement techniques are as follows: disc width is the widest portion of the lower lip, and disc length is taken from anterior mid-point of the anterior papillate skin fold to the posterior mid-point of the posterior margin of the mental disc. Lateral line scales were counted from the anterior most scale in contact with the shoulder girdle to the last scale on the caudal fin. Measurements of different morphometric parameters are given in percentages of standard length. For vertebral count, two specimens were dissected and

Kalpangi River

Figure 1. Collection site (marked as black spot) of Garra kalpangi sp. nov. in Kalpangi River, Lower Subansiri District, Arunachal Pradesh, India 2354

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stained with alizarin S. Abdominal vertebrae were counted from the first four vertebrae of the weberian apparatus to the last vertebra bearing pleural rib and caudal vertebrae were counted from the vertebra immediately posterior to anal fin pterygiophore. Some snout structures are addressed here with uniform terminology. The sublachrymal groove originates from the base of the rostral barbel and usually extends horizontally above the level of the groove of the rostral cap. Comparison of the present material with G. rotundinasus, G. gravelyi, G. rupecula, G. lamta and other known species distributed in China and Myanmar are made on published description, while for comparison with other congeners, their holotype and paratype are personally examined and measured. Specimens are deposited in the Rajiv Gandhi University Museum of Fishes (RGUMF). Garra kalpangi sp. nov. (Image 1) Material examined Holotype: 18.vii.2005, 60.0mm SL, location 27025’54”N & 93046’42”E, altitude 843m, Kalpangi River at Yachuli (Brahmaputra River system), Lower Subansiri District, Arunachal Pradesh, India, coll. Kenjum Bagra, RGUMF-0006. Paratype: 9 exs., same data as holotype, RGUMF-0007, 50.0–72.4 mm SL, Diagnosis Garra kalpangi sp. nov. is characterized from

K. Nebeshwar et al.

its congeners of the Himalayan foothills by the combination of characters: two pairs of barbels, a poorly developed proboscis represented by a squarish area in front of the nostrils and 16 circumpeduncular scales. It is closely similar to G. gravelyi, G. rotundinasus and G. elongata in having a weakly developed proboscis on the snout. Garra kalpangi sp. nov. can be differentiated from G. gravelyi in having branched dorsal-fin rays 8 (vs. 7), branched pectoral-fin rays 10– 12 (vs. 13), predorsal scales 10–11 (vs. 8–9), absence (vs. presence) of indistinct black spots at the bases of the branched dorsal-fin rays, absence (vs. presence) of lateral stripes on side of body. Garra kalpangi sp. nov. can be differentiated from G. rotundinasus in having branched pectoral-fin rays 10–12 (vs.13–15), lateral line scales 32–33 (vs. 36–37), scales between vent and anal-fin origin 3 (vs. 5), transverse scale rows above lateral line 3½ (vs. 2½), transverse scale rows below lateral line 3½–4 (vs. 2½–3), circumpeduncular scales 16 (vs. 12), absence (vs. subtle presence) of lateral stripe along lateral line. Garra kalpangi sp. nov. can be differentiated from G. elongata in having lateral line scales 32–33 (vs. 40–41), predorsal scales 10–11 (vs. 14–15), branched dorsal-fin rays 8 (vs.7), absence (vs. presence) of transverse groove at tip of snout, absence (vs. presence) of pleated papilliferous fold at corner of mouth, absence (vs. presence) of a wide submarginal band on dorsal fin, absence (vs. presence) of a longitudinal median black band on caudal fin. Description Measurements and counts taken from 10 specimens, 50.0–72.4 mm SL are given in Table 1. General body

Image 1. Garra kalpangi sp. nov., holotype, RGUMF-0006, 60mm SL.; Lateral view Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | February 2012 | 4(2): 2353–2362

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Image 2. Garra kalpangi sp. nov., holotype. a - ventral view of disc; b - dorsal view of head.

appearance in Image 1 and morphology of the mental adhesive disc and head dorsum are shown in Images 2a–b respectively. Body elongate, compressed laterally, more on caudal peduncle region; dorsal profile smoothly arched to dorsal-fin origin, then straight from posterior end of dorsal-fin base to caudal–fin base; ventral profile flat from head to chest, then more or less round up to pelvic-fin origin, and straight from pelvic to caudal-fin base. Head small, more or less depressed with a convex interorbital space; height less than length; width greater than height. Snout blunt, without transverse groove on tip, with a few minute to large tubercles across its tip and lateral sides anterior to nostrils; sublachrymal groove free from lateral groove of rostral cap; a poorly developed proboscis represented by a squarish area in the front of the nostrils; rostral lobe absent. Eyes placed dorsolaterally in middle of head. Two pairs of barbels; rostral ones anteroventrally located, shorter than eye diameter; maxillary ones at corner of mouth, shorter than rostral ones. Rostral cap well developed, moderately crenulated, and with a wide papillate margin; separated from the upper jaw by a deep groove and laterally continuous with lower lip by a flat papillate connective tissue. No upper lip in the form of papillose tissue and no papillose fold in the corner of mouth. Upper jaw entirely covered by rostral cap. Lower lip modified into a mental adhesive 2356

disc. Disc elliptical, shorter than wide; anterior margin modified to form a transverse, flat, fleshy and crescentic skin fold covered by numerous tiny papillae; anteriorly separated from lower jaw by a deep groove running along lower jaw and posteriorly bordered in a deep groove with central callous pad; lateral and posterior margin surrounding central callous pad papillate and free; posteriormost margin not reaching vertical from posterior margin of eye. Dorsal fin with 2(4), 3(5) simple and 8(9) branched rays; last simple ray shorter than or equal to HL; distal margin slightly concave; originated closer to snout tip than to caudal-fin base, inserted anterior to pelvic fin; first and second branched rays longest, last branched ray not extending to vertical from anal-fin origin. Pectoral fin with one simple and 10(3), 11(3), 12(3) branched rays, reaching beyond midway to pelvic–fin origin; its length less than or equal to HL; subacuminate margin; fourth branched ray longest. Pelvic fin with one simple and 7(3), 8(6) branched rays, reaching beyond midway to anal-fin origin, surpassing the vent; its outer margin blunt; second branched ray longest. Anal fin short with 2(6), 3(3) simple and 5(9) branched rays; first branched ray longest, straight posterior margin; tip extending to base of caudal fin or slightly shorter; origin of anal fin closer to caudalfin base than to pelvic–fin origin. Caudal fin deeply emarginate; lobe tips pointed, 10th ray shortest; lobes

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Table 1. Morphometric characters of G. kalpangi sp. nov. Morphometrics

Holotype

10 specimens including holotype Min-Max

Standard length

Mean±SD

60.4

50.0-72.4

body depth

21.8

18.9–23.8

21.4±1.63

head length

24.3

21.1–24.7

22.9±1.24

head height at nape

14.8

14.6–16.7

15.8±0.83

head width at opercle

18.9

17.3–19.3

18.6±0.78

snout length

12.0

9.1–11.6

10.4±1.05

In % SL

eye diameter

5.8

5.1–6.7

5.8±0.54

inter-orbital space

10.0

8.7–10.1

9.5±0.55

body width at anal fin

10.2

8.6–10.3

9.9±1.13

body width at dorsal fin

16.5

16.3–18.1

17.1±0.61

caudal peduncle length

16.5

16.0–17.5

16.9±0.59

caudal peduncle height

13.6

12.8–15.2

13.6±0.93

dorsal-fin length

22.6

21.9–25.7

23.1±0.75

dorsal-fin base length

14.6

14.5–16.2

15.4±0.73

pectoral-fin length

20.7

20.4–24.5

21.5±1.35

ventral-fin length

18.0

17.8–21.3

18.8±1.19

anal-fin length

18.2

17.9–20.0

19.0±0.82

anal-fin base length

6.8

6.7–7.7

7.4±0.47

upper caudal-fin lobe length

26.4

26.0–30.0

27.7±1.34

lower caudal-fin lobe length

27.3

26.3–31.4

28.6±1.64

median caudal-fin rays length

18.2

17.8–20.9

19.2±1.10

pre-anal length

78.8

74.4–80.4

76.9±2.21

pre-anus length

70.2

69.5–74.9

72.9±3.58

pre-ventral length

52.7

51.1–56.1

54.1±1.71

pre-dorsal length

49.3

43.9–50.2

47.5±2.54

ventral-anal distance

22.1

21.3–24.5

23.5±1.22

vent-anal distance

5.6

4.4–6.2

5.3±0.73

disc length

9.2

8.3–9.9

9.2±0.52

disc width

11.8

10.5–12.1

11.3±0.70

callous pad length

5.3

4.8–5.5

5.1±0.26

callous pad width

7.5

7.3–8.1

7.7±0.29

snout length

44.6

41.3–49.3

44.6±2.05

eye diameter

23.2

23.1–27.8

25.4±1.45

inter-orbital space

37.3

38.7–43.4

41.2±1.81

disc length

25.2

34.6–38.1

36.5±1.44

disc width

48.1

46.0–54.4

49.4±3.45

callous pad length

19.9

19.5–24.4

22.0±1.71

callous pad width

26.9

32.9–35.0

33.5±1.19

In % HL

equally long or lower slightly longer. Lateral line complete with 32(2), 33(7) scales. Scales in transverse row above lateral line 3½(9) and below lateral line 3½(8), 4(1). Circumpeduncular scales 16(9). Predorsal scales 10(6), 11(3); scales arranged regularly. Long axillary scale at base of pelvic fin reaching beyond its base. A row of 3 scales between vent and anal-fin base. Total vertebrae 31(2); abdominal vertebrae 16(2); caudal vertebrae 12(2). Gill rakers thin and weakly developed 11(1), 12(1). Air chamber bipartite; anterior chamber oval; posterior one small and conical, about 2 ∕3 length of anterior chamber. Colour in preservative Dorsum and sides of head dark gray; head, chest, and abdomen yellowish. Dorsal, anal, pelvic, and pectoral fins grayish-white. Caudal fin light grayish with a thin, short marginal stripe each on tip of upper lobe dorsally and on tip of lower lobe ventrally; in three specimens, with more or less indistinct grayish wide band along middle rays. A black spot at the upper angle of gill opening. Etymology Name is given as noun in apposition after the name of the River Kalpangi in Yazali, Lower Subansiri District, Arunachal Pradesh from where the specimen was first collected.

Discussion and Conclusions There are altogether 15 valid species of Garra known from the Himalayan foothills and distributed in the Ganga, Brahmaputra and Chindwin basins in northeastern India. The species are G. kempi Hora, G. annandalei Hora, G. naganensis Hora, G. rupecula (McClelland), G. abhoyai Hora, G. lamta Hamilton, G. arupi Nebeshwar, Vishwanath & Das, G. lissorhynchus (McClelland), G. manipurensis Vishwanath & Sarojnalini, G. paralissorhynchus Vishwanath & Santa, G. compressus Kosygin, & Vishwanath, G. elongata Vishwanath & Kosygin, G. gotyla Gray, G. nasuta (McClelland), and G. litanensis Vishwanath. Within these 15 species of the genus, former 11 species depict distinction of either absence of proboscis or weakly developed proboscis compared

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to Garra kalpangi sp. nov. whereas, later 4 species show the presence of strong proboscis. When Garra kalpangi sp. nov. is further compared with the most similar species: the Salween form, G. gravelyi, the Irrawaddy form, G. rotundinasus, and the Chindwin form, G. elongata, it also differs from G. gravelyi in having a wider head (1.18–1.28 in HL vs.1.39–1.48); from G. rotundinasus in having a deeper head (14.6–16.7 % SL vs. 12.5–14.4), and caudal peduncle (12.8–15.2 % SL vs. 10.8–11.8); larger eye (23.1–27.8 % HL vs. 13.8–18.6); narrower disc (46.0–54.4 % HL vs. 68.8–82.3), and interorbital space (38.1–43.4 % HL vs. 44.8–56.9); and shorter disc (34.6–38.1 % HL vs. 46.8–60.8); from G. elongata in having longer dorsal-fin base (14.5–16.2 % SL vs. 11.2–12.6), pectoral fin (20.4–24.5 %SL vs. 18.2–19.9), pre–pelvic distance (51.1–56.1 % SL vs. 46.9–49.7), and pre–anal distance (69.5–74.9 % SL vs. 60.2–64.3); shorter central callous pad (4.8–5.5 % SL vs. 7.2–8.1), and caudal peduncle (16.0–17.5 % SL vs. 19.2–20.7). Comparison in morphometric data and meristic count of Garra kalpangi sp. nov. with other known valid species of Himalayan foothill regions and its ranges is shown in the Table 2 and Appendix 1. G. kalpangi sp. nov. further differs from G. annandalei in having absence (vs. presence) of upper lip and a pleated papilliferous fold in the corner of mouth; rostral cap groove shallow, short, not extending up to base of rostral barbel (vs. deep, long, extending up to base of rostral barbel); from G. abhoyai in having absence (vs. presence) of w-shaped band on caudal fin; from G. arupi in the absence (vs. presence) of a submarginal black band of dorsal fin and thin stripes on caudal peduncle. Garra lissorhynchus, G. paralissorhynchus and G. manipurensis have a rostral lobe on tip of the snout, which can easily differentiate the three species from G. kalpangi sp. nov. Rostral lobe is a triangular section of the snout anterodorsal to the base of the anterior barbel; well demarcated but not elevated from the rest of the snout (Kullander & Fang 2004). G. kalpangi sp. nov. further differs from G. lissorhynchus and G. paralissorhynchus in the absence (vs. presence) of w-shaped band on caudal fin. Garra kalpangi sp. nov. further differs from G. rupecula in having less lateral line scales (32–33 vs. 35); absence (vs. presence) of two rows of open pores, 2358

each on interorbital and internarial region; from G. lamta in having absence (vs. presence) of broad lateral band from gill-opening to base of caudal fin with incomplete dark narrow stripes above and below it, especially in the posterior half of body; absence (vs. presence) of a black spot at the base of the caudal fin and a deep transverse groove at the tip of the snout. Garra gotyla, G. nasuta and G. litanensis are characteristic in having a prominent proboscis with large tubercles, a distinct transverse lobe at the tip of the snout with large tubercles, black spots at the bases of branched dorsal-fin rays (Menon 1964; Vishwanath 1993). Only these characters can easily differentiate the three species from G. kalpangi sp. nov. When Nath & Day (2000) reported seven species of Garra in Arunachal Pradesh, a peninsular form, G. mcclellandi was also included. His identification of G. mcclellandi in the Himalayan foothill region is ambiguous. However, G. kalpangi sp. nov. differs from G. mcclellandi in the absence (vs. presence) of a distinct dark midlateral stripe from the gill opening to the base of the caudal fin; snout moderately rounded (vs. conical); absence (vs. presence) of a transverse groove at the tip of the snout; less lateral line scales (31–32 vs. 35–38); more predorsal scales (10–12 vs. 8–10). Kullander & Fang (2004) described seven new species found in different streams of the Rakhine state in Myanmar. The species are Garra propulvinus, G. vittatula, G. rakhinica, G. flavatra, G. nigricollis, G. spilota and G. poecilura. Most species except (G. spilota) have a distinct rostral lobe on snout. Only this character can easily differentiate the above six species from G. kalpangi sp. nov. G. kalpangi sp. nov. differs from G. spilota in the absence (vs. presence) of blotches on the body; absence (vs. presence) of pleated papilliferous fold at the corner of mouth between exposed lower jaw and lower lip; less transverse scale rows above lateral line (3½ vs. 4½ ), scale rows below lateral line (3½ vs. 4½). The other known congeners above Garra gravelyi and G. rotundinasus distributed in China are G. orientalis Nichols, G. qiaojiensis Wu & Yao, G. tengchongensis Zhang & Chen in the upper Irrawaddy basin and G. nujiangensis Chen, Zhao & Yang in Salween basin (Zhang & Chen 2002; Zhang 2006; Chen et al. 2009). All the species (except G. tengchongensis and G. nujiangensis) have prominent proboscis on the

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snout, which is also a differentiating character from the present new species. G. kalpangi sp. nov. differs from the latter two species in having less lateral line scales (32–33 vs. 37–38 in G. tengchongensis; 48–50 in G. nujiangensis); more circumpeduncular scales (16 vs. 12 in G. tengchongensis; 12–14 in G. nujiangensis). There is a nominal species distributed in northeastern India, viz., Garra chaudhurii Hora considered as a juniour synonym of G. annandalei (Menon 1964). In the original description of G. chaudhurii, the characters i.e. variation in the shape of disc among specimens, presence of 32–33 lateral line scales are mentioned. However, variation of disc is not observed among different sizes of 25 specimens of G. annandalei deposited in the RGUMF. The differentiating characters and geographical distribution of G. gotyla and G. nasuta are also very ambiguous. So, a review of the species based on the materials collected from their respective type localities is highly needed. In most Garra species, the lateral deep groove of the rostral cap is continuous to the shallow sublachrymal groove extending from the base of the rostral barbel (Fig. 2a–d). In G. kalpangi sp. nov. and G. paralissorhynchus, the grooves are not connected free from each other. In the former species, the sublachrymal groove runs horizontally above the level of the groove of the rostral cap and in the latter, the sublachrymal groove runs horizontally below the level of the groove of rostral cap. In G. annandalei,

RBG

RCG

RBG RCG

Figure 2. a - Garra kalpangi sp. nov.; b - Garra annandalei; c - Garra abhoyai; d - Garra paralissorhynchus. RCG - Rostral cap groove; RBG - Rostral barbel groove

the rostral cap groove is deep and runs upto the base of rostral barbel. So, no two different grooves can be seen. The groove of the rostral cap extends to the base of the rostral barbel. In G. naganensis, G. lissorhynchus and G. elongata, the rostral cap groove continues to the shallow sublachrymal groove. In G. abhoyai the sublachrymal is absent or present as an indistinct line and continuous to the groove of rostral cap. Comparative material Garra elongata: MUMF 2311, holotype, 86.2 mm SL; MUMF 2308-2310, paratype, 3 exs., 72.0– 80.8 mm SL, a small stream near Tolloi, Ukhrul district, Manipur (Chindwin basin), coll. L. Kosygin, 12.xi.1997. – uncatalogued specimens, 4 exs. 63.2– 112.5 mm SL, Challou River at Challou, Ukhrul district, Manipur (Chindwin basin), coll. Kingson, May 2005. Garra annandalei: RGUMF-0074, 15 exs., 55.3–99.0 mm SL, Kameng river, Balukpung, West Kameng District, Arunachal Pradesh (Brahmaputra basin), coll. Karsen Nyori & Mrinali Choudhuri, 20.viii.2005; RGUMF-0075, 10 exs., 65.0–85.0 mm SL, Panye River, Tamen, Lower Subansiri District, 17.vii.2005. Garra lissorhynchus: MUMF 4163– 4166, 6 exs., 67.1–86.2 mm SL, Iyei River at Noney, Tamenglong district (Brahmaputra basin), coll. K. Nebeshwar, 2.ix.2000. Garra naganensis: MUMF 4156-4159, 4 exs. 92.3–106.9 mm SL, Barak River, Vanchengphai Village, Tamenglong District, Manipur (Brahmaputra basin), coll. K. Nebeshwar, 20.xi.1999; uncatalogued specimen, 2 exs., 77.8–84.4 mm SL, Tuivai River, Churachandpur District, Manipur (Brahmaputra basin), coll. K. Shanta Devi, March 2003. Garra abhoyai: uncatalogued specimen, 6 exs., 45.2–47.0 mm SL, Khujailok stream at Nambol, Bishnupur district, Manipur (Chindwin basin), coll. Vishwanath et al., April 2001; uncatalogued specimen, 6 exs., 49.3–54.9 mm SL, Iril River at Phungthar, Ukhrul district, Manipur (Chindwin basin), coll. I. Linthoi et al., 17.i.2003; uncatalogued specimen, 5 exs., 45.0–53.0 mm SL, Nambul River at Singda, Imphal district, Manipur (Chindwin basin), coll. Joyshree, 3.iii.2004. Garra compressus: MUMF 2316, holotype, 68.1mm SL ; MUMF 2314-2315, paratype, 2exs., 78.6–83.2 mm SL, Wanze stream at Khamson, Ukhrul District, Manipur (Chindwin basin), coll. L. Kosygin, 17.iii.1998. Garra paralissorhynchus:

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Table 2. Comparative morphometric data and meristic count of Garra kalpangi sp. nov. from its nine congeners. In % SL

Gka

Body depth

18.9–23.8

Head height

14.6–16.7

Gar

Gma

Gke

Gann

Gna

Gli

16.4–18.2 20.2–22.8

Head width

17.3–19.3 12.9–16.4

20.0–20.8

Interorbital space

8.7–10.1

Dorsal-fin base length

14.5–16.2

Dorsal-fin height

21.9–25.7

18.6–19.7

6.7–7.7

5.6–6.0

11.1–12.6 10.9–13.2

11.1–12.0

12.0–13.1

Gab

Gco

23.7–26.7

16.2–18.3

16.9–18.2

18.1–21.0

Snout length

Anal-fin base length

19.3–21.2

Gpa

11.5–11.9

20.0–21.3

13.8–15.9

10.6–12.5

10.8–11.3

18.6–21.2

17.0–18.8

50.2–54.0

51.5–55.1

12.0–13.0

12.5–13.2

10.5–12.2

43.9–50.2

Pre-anus length

69.5–74.9

62.4–65.6

62.8–65.0

Disc width

10.3–12.1

14.4–15.4

14.3–15.4

Disc length

8.3–9.9

Callous pad width

7.3–8.1

9.0–10.1

8.9–9.6

Callous pad length

4.8–5.5

6.3–7.7

6.5–7.4

19.9–27.7

32.6–60.0

50.0–52.9

Lateral line scales

32–33

35–36

40–42

Predorsal scales

10–11

10.7–11.9

10.3–11.2

11.5–12.7

11.0–13.0

Predorsal length

12.0–12.9

10.6–12.7

7.8–8.2

61.3–63.6 13.4–14.0 6.1–7.1

6.1–7.5

10.0–10.7

10.6–11.7

9.5–10.3

8.1–8.8

2.9–3.8

6.4–7.7

7.0–7.8

30.0–33.6

40.6–44.2

37.3–40.2

34–35

36–38 13–14

In % pelvic-anal Vent-anal distance

31.7–35.2

38.2–46.5

48.5–51.5

34–35

34–36

14–15

18–29

13–14

Meristic count

Circumpeduncular scales

12–14

Dorsal-fin rays

ii–iii, 8

ii, 7

ii, 6

Anal-fin rays

ii–iii, 5

ii, 4

3½/3½

4 ½ / 4½

Transverse scales

ii, 7

34–35

4½–5 / 2½

4½ / 4½

ii,7

4½–5½ ∕ 4½–5½

Gka - G. kalpangi sp. nov.; Gar - G. arupi; Gma - G. manipurensis; Gke - G. kempi; Gan - G. annandalei; Gna - G. naganensis; Gli - G. lissorhynchus; Gpa - G. paralissorhynchus; Gab - G. abhoyai; Gco - G. compressus

MUMF 5054, holotype, 65.9mm SL, Khuga River, Churachandpur District, Manipur (Chindwin basin), coll. L. Shanta Devi; Paratype: MUMF 5094, 1 ex., 60.9mm SL, 10.iv.2000; MUMF 5041, 1 ex., 58.0mm SL, 03.v.2000; MUMF 5104-5106, 3 exs., 49.6–59.6 mm SL, 21.viii.2002, same collection data as holotype. –Garra manipurensis: MU/LSD/F-130, holotype, 59.8mm SL, Manipur River, Sherou, Manipur (Chindwin basin); MUMF 4160-4162, 3 exs. 41.9–68.3 mm SL, Iyei River, Noney, Tamenglong District (Brahmaputra basin), coll. K. Nebeshwar, 27.xii.2000. Garra kempi: RGUMF-0184, 3 exs., 52.0–56.0 mm SL, Egar stream, Rottung, East Siang District, Arunachal Pradesh (Brahmaputra basin), coll. K. Nebeshwar & Party, 12. i. 2007; MUMF 4314/2, 2 ex., 64.5-65.0 mm SL, Demwe stream, Tezu, Lohit District, Arunachal Pradesh (Brahmaputra basin), coll. K. Nebeshwar & Party, 1.i.2007. Garra arupi: 2360

RGUMF-0184, holotype, 60.0 mm SL; RGUMF-0185, Paratype, 15 exs., 50.0–72.4 mm SL, Deopani River at Roing, Lower Divang Valley, Arunachal Pradesh, coll. K. Nebeshwar & party, 7–18.ii.2007. Garra litanensis: MUMF-68/1, holotype, 92.5mm SL, Litan stream at Litan, Manipur, coll. W. Vishwanath, 16.iii.1986; MUMF-69/1-5, Paratypes, 5 exs., 69.0–74.0 mm SL, same data as holotype, coll. W. Vishwanath, 12.ii.1988. Garra cf. gotyla: MUMF 4300, 4301/9, 68.8–104.3 mm SL, Tista R., Sikkim (Brahmaputra basin), coll. W. Vishwanath and party, 2–9.ii.2006. Garra sp.: uncatalogued specimens, 2 exs., 81.2–100.3 mm SL, Khasi hills, Meghalaya (Brahmaputra basin), coll. Manichandra, August 2009; uncatalogued specimens, 12 exs., 66.4–122.0 mm SL, Tuirial River, Aizwal, Mizoram (Brahmaputra basin), coll. K. Nebeshwar & A. Darshan, 24.xi.–1.xii. 2008.

Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | February 2012 | 4(2): 2353–2362

Garra kalpangi, a new cyprinid fish

K. Nebeshwar et al.

The taxonomic keys to the sixteen species of Garra distributed in the northeastern states of India 1.

Proboscis absent ............................................................................................................................................ 2 Proboscis present ..........................................................................................................................................12

Snout tip with a transverse groove or band of tubercles ................................................................................ 3 Snout tip smooth, without a transverse groove or band of tubercles ............................................................. 4

Lateral line with 35-36 pored scales; No lateral longitudinal band from gill opening to caudal base ................ ........................................................................................................................................................ Garra arupi Lateral band with 31-34 pored scales; A longitudinal Band from gill opening to caudal base ........Garra lamta

Rostral lobe on snout present ......................................................................................................................... 5 Rostral lobe on snout absent .......................................................................................................................... 7

W-shaped band on caudal fin absent ............................................................................... Garra manipurensis W-shaped band on caudal fin present ............................................................................................................ 6

Lateral line with 32-33 pored scales; 11-12 predorsal scales ......................................... G. paralissorhynchus Lateral line with 34-35 pored scales; 14-15 predorsal scales ........................................... Garra lissorhynchus

W-shaped band on caudal fin present ....................................................................................... Garra abhoyai W-shaped band on caudal fin absent ............................................................................................................. 8

Rostral cap groove deep, long, extending to base of rostral barbel ..................................... Garra annandalei Rostral cap groove shallow, short, not extending to base of rostral barbel .................................................... 9

Lateral line less than 39 pored scales .......................................................................................................... 10 Lateral line more than 39 pored scales ......................................................................................................... 11

10.

Lateral line with 35 pored scales; Rows of open pores on dorsum of head present .................Garra rupecula Lateral line with 36-38 pored scales; Rows of open pores on dorsum of head absent ........Garra naganensis

11.

Black dark spot at upper angle of gill opening and median longitudinal black band on caudal fin present ...... ............................................................................................................................................. Garra compressus Dark spot at upper angle of gill opening and median longitudinal black band on caudal fin absent ................. ....................................................................................................................................................... Garra kempi

12.

Proboscis weakly developed ........................................................................................................................ 13 Proboscis well developed ............................................................................................................................. 14

13.

Lateral line with 40-41 pored scales; 14-15 predorsal scales .................................................. Garra elongata Lateral line with 32-33 pored scales; 10-11 predorsal scales .................................. Garra kalpangi sp. nov.

14.

Tubercles of proboscis multicuspid; Proboscis trilobed ............................................................... Garra nasuta Tubercles of Proboscis unicuspid; proboscis uni- or bilobed proboscis ....................................................... 15

15.

Proboscis unilobed ........................................................................................................................ Garra gotyla Proboscis bilobed .....................................................................................................................Garra litanensis

References Chen, Z.M., S. Zhao & J.X. Yang (2009). A new species of the genus Garra from Nujiang River basin, Yunnan, China (Teleostei: Cyprinidae). Zoological Research 30(4): 438–444. Hora, S.L. (1921). Indian cyprinoid fishes belonging to the genus Garra, with notes on related species from other countries. Records of Indian Museum 22: 633–687. Kosygin, L. & W. Vishwanath (1998). A new cyprinid fish Garra compressus from Manipur, India. Journal of Freshwater Biology 10(1–2): 45–48. Kullander, S.O. & F. Fang (2004). Seven new species of Garra (Cyprinidae: Cyprininae) from the Rakhine Yoma, southern Myanmar. Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters 15(3): 257–278. Menon, A.G.K. (1964). Monograph of the cyprinid fishes of the genus Garra Hamilton. Memoirs of the Indian Museum 14(4): 173–260. Nath, P. & S.C. Dey (2000). Fish and Fisheries of North Eastern India (Arunachal Pradesh). Narendra Publishing House, New Delhi, 217pp. Nebeshwar, K., W. Vishwanath & D.N. Das (2009). Garra

arupi, a new cyprinid fish species (Pisces: Teleostei) from upper Brahmaputra basin in Arunachal Pradesh, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 1(4): 197–202. Vishwanath, W. (1993). On a collection of fishes of the genus Garra Hamilton from Manipur, India, with description of a new species. Journal of Freshwater Biology 5(1): 59–68. Vishwanath, W. & L. Kosygin (2000). Garra elongata, a new species of the subfamily Garrinae from Manipur, India (Cyprinidae, Cypriniformes). Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 97: 408–414. Vishwanath, W. & I. Linthoingambi (2008). Redescription of Garra abhoyai Hora (Teleostei: Cyprinidae: Garrinae) with a note on Garra rupecula from Manipur, India. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 105(1): 101–104. Vishwanath, W. & C. Sarojnalini (1988). A new cyprinid fish, Garra manipurensis, from Manipur, India. Japanese Journal of Ichthyology 35: 124–126. Vishwanath, W. & K. Shanta (2005). A new species of the genus Garra Hamilton-Buchanan (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae) from Manipur, India. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 102(1): 86–88. Zhang, E. (2006). Garra rotundinasus, a new species of cyprinid

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fish (Pisces: Teleostei) from the upper Irrawaddy River basin, China. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 54(2): 447–453. Zhang, E. & Y.Y. Chen (2002). Garra tengchongensis, a new cyprinid species from the upper Irrawaddy River basin in Yunnan, China (Pisces: Teleostei). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 50(2): 459–464. Zhang, E., S.P. He & Y.Y. Chen (2002). Revision of the cyprinid genus Placocheilus Wu, 1977 in China, with description of a new species from Yunnan. Hydrobiologia 487: 207–217.

Author Contribution: The study: DND exploration of fish species in the region. KB collection and habitat description of the fish species from different rivers of Arunachal Pradesh. KN morphometric study and confirmation of the identity of the species. Current paper: DND supervised the work and interpreted the taxonomic information gathered by the fellow researcher. KB collected the specimens, helped in comparative studies of the species and incorporated several revision of the research paper. KN examined the specimen and compared with closely related species to establish identity of the new species.

Appendix I . Morphometric characters of G. kalpangi sp. nov. Parameters Standard length

Holotype

10 specimens including holotype

60.4

50.0

52.0

52.2

52.7

56.3

62.3

63.3

68.4

72.4

21.8

18.9

21.1

22.1

20.0

21.3

21.7

21.9

21.8

23.8

In % SL body depth head length

24.3

21.1

21.9

22.0

21.8

23.2

23.7

22.6

24.0

24.7

head height at nape

14.8

14.6

15.7

15.3

15.6

15.7

16.6

16.7

head width at opercle

18.9

17.3

18.8

18.4

18.6

18.5

18.9

19.0

18.0

19.3

snout length

12.0

10.3

10.2

9.1

10.5

11.4

9.2

10.2

11.6

eye diameter

5.8

5.1

6.4

6.3

5.2

5.1

5.5

5.9

5.8

6.7

interorbital space

10.0

9.5

9.7

9.2

9.5

8.7

9.4

10.1

body width at anal fin

10.2

8.6

10.3

10.2

10.5

10.1

9.8

9.2

10.1

10.3

body width at dorsal fin

16.5

16.3

17.8

16.4

18.0

17.0

17.2

17.4

18.1

caudal peducle length

16.5

16.0

16.8

16.9

17.2

17.0

16.4

17.4

17.5

caudal peducle height

13.6

12.8

12.9

13.8

13.9

13.0

13.8

13.0

14.3

15.2

dorsal-fin length

22.6

21.9

22.3

22.2

22.1

22.0

23.6

24.1

24.0

25.7

dorsal-fin base length

14.6

14.5

15.3

16.2

15.6

14.9

14.5

16.1

16.2

pectoral-fin length

20.7

20.4

20.8

21.8

21.1

20.5

22.0

21.5

24.5

ventral-fin length

18.0

18.5

17.8

18.2

18.5

18.8

18.7

18.5

19.5

21.3

anal-fin length

18.2

17.9

18.6

18.9

19.2

18.6

18.8

19.6

19.9

20.0

anal-fin base length

6.8

6.7

7.6

7.5

7.6

7.5

7.4

7.3

7.7

upper caudal-fin lobe length

26.4

26.0

26.8

26.6

26.4

27.8

29.3

28.2

29.6

30.0

lower caudal-fin lobe length

27.3

26.3

27.5

28.5

28.1

28.6

28.0

29.6

30.5

31.4

median caudal-fin rays length

18.2

18.9

17.8

18.5

18.9

19.7

19.8

19.3

20.9

pre-anal length

78.8

75.8

75.9

75.6

76.8

74.4

75.9

77.1

78.6

80.4

pre-anus length

70.2

69.5

73.3

72.8

72.6

72.9

73.4

74.6

74.9

74.5

pre-ventral length

52.7

51.1

53.0

53.5

54.2

54.7

54.8

55.7

55.2

56.1

predorsal length

49.3

43.9

44.4

45.2

47.4

49.7

48.1

48.2

48.9

50.2

ventral-anal distance

22.1

21.3

23.9

24.4

23.8

23.4

24.5

23.8

23.3

24.5

anus-anal distance

5.6

4.5

5.0

5.3

4.4

4.8

5.5

5.8

5.9

6.2

disc length

9.2

8.3

9.4

9.9

8.6

8.8

9.1

9.4

9.7

9.9

disc width

11.8

10.5

11.1

10.6

10.8

11.0

11.3

11.6

12.0

12.1

callous pad length

5.3

4.8

4.9

5.0

5.4

4.8

5.1

4.9

5.5

callous pad width

7.5

7.3

7.8

7.9

7.4

7.6

8.1

7.8

8.0

7.4

snout length

44.6

41.3

42.5

42.6

42.2

44.1

46.1

46.3

47.1

49.3

eye diameter

23.2

23.1

25.5

24.7

25.6

24.6

25.8

26.9

26.4

27.8

interorbital space

37.3

39.6

42.7

43.4

39.4

38.7

42.0

40.8

43.4

42.4

disc length

25.2

34.6

35.4

34.6

36.3

36.5

37.8

38.1

37.2

37.9

disc width

48.1

48.7

46.0

48.7

50.3

47.5

48.7

50.6

50.8

54.4

callous pad length

19.9

19.5

21.9

21.6

22.8

22.1

22.4

22.7

23.0

24.4

callous pad width

33.9

33.5

32.8

32.5

32.9

33.4

33.5

33.9

33.2

35.0

In % HL

2362

Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | February 2012 | 4(2): 2353–2362

JoTT Communication

4(2): 2363–2369

Barilius profundus, a new cyprinid fish (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) from the Koladyne basin, India M. Dishma1 & W. Vishwanath2 Department of Life Sciences, Manipur University, Canchipur, Manipur 795003, India Email: 1 dishma27@gmail.com, 2 wvnath@gmail.com (corresponding author)

1,2

Date of publication (online): 26 February 2012 Date of publication (print): 26 February 2012 ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print) Editor: K. Rema Devi Manuscript details: Ms # o2838 Received 15 June 2011 Final received 05 January 2012 Finally accepted 30 January 2012 Citation: M. Dishma & W. Vishwanath (2012). Barilius profundus, a new cyprinid fish (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) from the Koladyne basin, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(2): 2363–2369. Copyright: © M. Dishma & W. Vishwanath 2012. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non-profit purposes, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication. Author Details: M. Dishma is a junior research fellow under a project funded by the Department of Science & Technology, New Delhi. He is working on the inventory of the bariline and cobitid fishes of northeastern India. He is undergoing PhD on a relevant topic in the Department of Life Sciences, Manipur University. Dr. W. Vishwanath is a Professor in the Department of Life Sciences, Manipur University. His field of specialization is fish and fisheries. He is presently engaged in taxonomy and systematics of freshwater fishes of northeastern India. Author Contribution: See end of this article Acknowledgements: The authors are grateful to the Department of Science & Technology, New Delhi (Project No. SR/SO/AS-50/2008) for financial support.

Abstract: Barilius profundus, a new species of bariline cyprinid fish is described from the Koladyne River, Mizoram, India. It is distinguished from congeners in having the following combination of characters: great body depth at dorsal-fin origin (32.0–37.3 % SL), 17–18 pre-dorsal scales, 7–10 dark blue bars on the sides of the body, 30–32 + 2–3 lateral line scales, ½7/1/2½ lateral transverse scales and 12 circumpeduncular scales. Key to species of Barilius of northeastern India is provided. Keywords: Bariline fish, Mizoram, new species.

Introduction Fishes of the genus Barilius Hamilton are characterised by a compressed body, blue-black bars or spots on the body and dorsal fin inserted behind the middle of the body (Hamilton 1822). The members of this genus are inhabitants of medium to fast flowing torrential mountain streams of China, western Asia, South and mainland South-east Asia. Thirteen species of the genus are hitherto known from the Eastern Himalaya region (Vishwanath et al. 2010). They are: B. ngawa Vishwanath & Manojkumar, B. dogarsinghi Hora, B. chatricensis Selim & Vishwanath, B. lairokensis Arunkumar & Tombi from the Chindwin drainage; B. barila (Hamilton), B. bendelisis (Hamilton), B. tileo (Hamilton), B. shacra (Hamilton), B. vagra (Hamilton), B. barna (Hamilton), B. dimorphicus Tilak & Husain, B. radiolatus Gunther, and B. bonarensis Chaudhuri from the GangaBrahmaputra drainage. The Koladyne River in Mizoram, northeastern India, is a drainage connected neither with the Ganga-Brahmaputra nor the Chindwin drainages. Its icthyofauna is poorly explored. Collections from the river (also known as Kaladan or Chhimtuipui) include an undescribed species of Barilius which is herein described as a new species.

Materials and Methods

OPEN ACCESS | FREE DOWNLOAD

Measurements were made point to point on the left side of specimens wherever possible with dial calipers to the nearest 0.1mm. The colour in fresh specimens was noted before fixation and preservation in 10% formalin. Counts and measurements follow Kottelat (1990) and lateral line scale count, Kottelat (2001). Head length (HL) and anatomical measurements are expressed as proportions of standard length (SL) and subunits of head as proportions of head length (HL). Osteological structures were observed in a cleared and alizarin-stained specimen

Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | February 2012 | 4(2): 2363–2369

2363

New cyprinid fish

M. Dishma & W. Vishwanath

Image 1. Barilius profundus sp. nov., side view of paratype, MUMF 27021, 69.9mm SL

following Hollister (1934). Vertebral counts follow Weitzman (1962). Fin rays were counted under a stereo-zoom light microscope. Type specimens are deposited in the Manipur University Museum of Fishes (MUMF). Barilius profundus sp. nov. (Image 1) Type material Holotype: 24.xii.2009, 22023’N & 92057’E, 71.1mm SL; Koladyne River at Kolchaw, Lawntlai District, Mizoram, India, coll. Nebeshwar and party, MUMF 27001. Paratypes: 4 exs., 55.2–67.7 mm SL, data as for holotype, MUMF 27002-27005; 8 exs., 30.xi.2008, 50.9–69.9 mm SL; Koladyne River at Kolchaw, Lawntlai District, Mizoram, India, coll. Nebeshwar & party, MUMF 27021-27028. One paratype (MUMF 27005, 54.5mm SL) dissected for osteology. Diagnosis A species of Barilius with the following combination of characters: great body depth at dorsal-fin origin (32.0–37.3 % SL); 17–18 pre-dorsal scales; 7–10 dark blue bars against faintly brown to yellowish-cream background of body, width of bar narrower than interspace width; lateral line complete with 30–32 + 2–3 scales; eye diameter (38.3–42.9 % HL), predorsal length (58.9–64.0 % SL); dorsal-fin length (21.6–25.7 % SL); ½7/1/2½ lateral transverse scales; 12 circumpeduncular scales; and 35 vertebrae.

2364

Description Morphometric data are shown in Table 1 and Appendix 1. Body compressed, abdomen rounded. Dorsal profile in front of dorsal-fin origin relatively straight, gently sloping downward towards base of caudal peduncle. Ventral profile slightly curved till pectoral-fin origin, then straight up to anal-fin origin, thereafter sloping dorsally to end of caudal peduncle. Muscular pads present at base of pectoral and pelvic fins. Head moderately compressed; shorter than wide. Snout blunt, profile dorsally curved and rounded when viewed laterally, length shorter than interorbital distance. Eyes large, slightly bulging (convex), visible both from dorsal and ventral sides of head, situated in anterior half of head, diameter smaller than interorbital distance. Interorbital space slightly arched. Mouth terminal, obliquely directed upwards. Gape of mouth reaches anterior margin of orbit. Tubercles on snout and lower jaw poorly developed. Barbels two pairs, short. One pair each of rostral and maxillary. Lips thin. Nostrils almost at level of upper margin of eye, distinctly nearer to anterior margin of eye than tip of snout. Jaws equal in length. Lower jaw without symphysial knob. Dorsal fin inserted posterior to pelvic-fin origin with ii, 7½ rays and closer to caudal-fin base than tip of snout; longer than pelvic and anal fin; tip of last branched ray extending to middle of anal fin base. Pectoral fin with i,11 rays, shorter than head length; their tips pointed or nearly so; not reaching pelvic-fin origin. Pelvic fin with i, 8 rays, its origin much nearer to anal-fin origin than pectoral-fin origin, shorter than head length and pectoral fin; pelvic fin not reaching

Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | February 2012 | 4(2): 2363–2369

New cyprinid fish

M. Dishma & W. Vishwanath

Table 1. Morphometric data for Barilius profundus sp. nov. (n=13)

Standard length (mm)

Holotype MUMF 27001

Range*

71.1

50.9–71.1

Mean

In % of standard length Body depth at dorsal fin origin

32.0

32.0–37.3

34.6

2.5

Head length

18.6

18.6–21.0

19.8

1.0

Predorsal length

59.9

58.9–64.0

61.4

3.9

Prepelvic length

51.6

45.8–62.3

54.0

4.5

Pre-anus length

67.8

67.8–74.6

71.2

4.6

Preanal length

70.6

70.6–76.3

73.4

4.6

Prepectoral length

28.1

26.9–30.2

28.5

1.9

Pectoral fin length

20.8

20.8–24.5

22.6

1.2

Pelvic fin length

13.9

13.9–17.6

15.7

0.8

Dorsal fin height

21.6

21.6–25.7

23.6

1.4

Dorsal fin base length

16.1

14.9–17.5

16.2

1.3

Anal fin length

16.6

16.6–20.4

18.5

1.0

Caudal peduncle length

14.0

11.1–15.4

13.2

1.0

Caudal peduncle depth

11.6

11.4–15.6

13.5

0.9

In % of head length Snout length

43.1

34.9–43.1

39.0

0.6

Eye diameter

40.1

38.3–42.9

40.6

0.3

Interorbital distance

50.0

45.2–53.3

49.2

0.6

Maximum head width

67.4

58.5–79.2

68.8

1.3

Head height at supraoccipital

118.9

111.6–136.8

124.2

1.7

D rays

ii, 7½

P rays

i, 11

V rays

i, 8

Counts

A rays

ii, 10½

C rays

i, 9+8, i

L.l

32+2

30-32+2-3

½/7/1/2½

Predorsal scales

17–18

Circumpeduncular scales

Transverse bands on body

7–10

L.tr.

L.l - lateral line longitudinal scales; L.tr. - lateral transverse scales; * - measurements of all individuals provided in Appendix 1.

anal opening. Anal-fin origin just below base of last dorsal fin ray, with ii, 10½ rays; not reaching caudal peduncle when adpressed; fin margin concave. Anal fin shorter than head length. Anal opening located immediately anterior to anal-fin origin. Caudal fin deeply forked with i, 9+8, i principal rays, both upper and lower lobes equal in length. Scales moderate. Circumpeduncular scales 12, lateral transverse scale ½7/1/2½. Lateral line complete

with 30–32 + 2–3 scales. Vertebrae 18+17= 35 including complex vertebra. Colour: In a fresh specimen, dorsal and dorsolateral surfaces of head and body faintly brown, ventral portion anterior to pelvic-fin origin silver coloured. Belly creamy to golden yellowish and with 7–10 dark blue bars on the sides; first anterior-most dark blue bar extends beyond lateral line, sometimes first two or three anterior-most bars touch lateral line. Dorsal

Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | February 2012 | 4(2): 2363–2369

2365

Barak River MANIPUR

iver

TRIPURA

in R

240N

Riv

Aizawl

MIZORAM

Koladyne River

nga

Barak R. ASSAM

C hi

M. Dishma & W. Vishwanath

ndw

Brahmaputra River

New cyprinid fish

ph rna

920E

Kolodyne R.

Sittwe

BANGLADESH

Rive ddy Irra wa

Bay of Bengal

MYANMAR

uli

230N

930E

Figure 1. Map showing type locality of Barilius profundus sp. nov. indicated as a star.

Etymology The species name ‘profundus’ (Latin, meaning deep) is in reference to its great body depth, an adjective. Distribution Presently known only from the Koladyne River at Mizoram (Fig. 1, Image 2).

Image 2. Koladyne River at Kolchaw, Mizoram, habitat of Barilius profundus sp. nov.

fin hyaline with a row of elongated black marks. Pectoral, pelvic and anal fins golden yellow with hyaline distal margins. Caudal fin edged with black, faintly yellowish-green at the base. In 10% formalin, body creamy, slightly dark dorsally. Dorsal fin hyaline with a row of elongated black marks. Caudal fin hyaline, edged with black. Pectoral, anal and ventral fins hyaline without dark bands.

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Discussion Barilius profundus sp. nov. is close to its nearest congeners, B. dogarsinghi and B. barna in having a dorsal fin with 7½ branched rays and a pelvic fin with eight branched rays. However, the new species differs from B. dogarsinghi in having greater body depth at dorsal-fin origin (32.0–37.3% SL vs. 24.8–30.0), eye diameter (38.3–42.9 % HL vs. 29.2–33), and branched anal-fin rays (10½ vs. 9½); lesser pre-dorsal scales (17–18 vs. 20), lateral line scales (30–32 + 2–3 vs. 37–40 + 2). It differs from B. barna in having greater body depth at dorsal-fin origin (32.0–37.3% SL vs. 29.0–30.8); presence (vs. absence) of barbels; longer

Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | February 2012 | 4(2): 2363–2369

New cyprinid fish

predorsal distance (58.9–64.0% SL vs. 53.9–54.9), anal-fin distance (16.6–20.4% SL vs. 13.3–15.1); shorter caudal peduncle (11.4–15.6% SL vs. 16.1– 16.9); more predorsal scales (17–18 vs. 15–16); lesser lateral line scales (30–32 + 2–3 vs. 36–39 + 2–3), and branched pectoral-fin rays (11 vs. 12). Barilius profundus sp. nov. differs from B. barila, B. tileo, B. shacra and B. vagra in having greater body depth at dorsal-fin origin 32.0–37.3 % SL (vs. 23.4–24.0 in B. barila, 29.9 in B. tileo, 22.2–23.2 in B. shacra and 25.2–26.7 in B. vagra), 17–18 predorsal scales (vs. 22 in B. barlia, 28 in B. tileo, 22–25 in B. shacra and 21–22 in B. vagra) and 30–32 + 2–3 lateral line scales (vs. 40–42 + 2–3 in B. barila, 59+4 in B. tileo, 59–70 in B. shacra and 40–42 + 3 in B. vagra). Barilius profundus sp. nov. further differs from B. bendelisis in having greater body depth at dorsal-fin origin (32.0–37.3% SL vs. 22.1–26.1), 30–32 + 2–3 lateral line scales (vs. 39–42 + 2–4), scales without dark spot (vs. with dark spot); from B. radiolatus in having greater body depth at dorsal-fin origin (32.0– 37.3% SL vs. 22.2), 30–32 + 2–3 lateral line scales (vs. 58), ventral fin not reaching vent (vs. reaching vent); from B. bonarensis in having greater body depth at dorsal-fin origin (32.0–37.3% SL vs. 21.7– 22.2), 30–32+2–3 lateral line scales (vs. 47); from B. dimorphicus in having greater body depth at dorsal-fin origin (32.0–37.3% SL vs. 24.9–28.8), 30–32 + 2–3 lateral line scales (vs. 60–66), 17–18 predorsal scales (vs. 25–27). The new species differs from B. ngawa, B. chatricensis and B. lairokensis in having greater body depth at dorsal-fin origin (32.0–37.3 % SL vs. 24.8–28.3 in B. ngawa, 23.2 in B. chatricensis, 25.5 in B. lairokensis), 17-18 predorsal scales (vs. 21–22 in B. ngawa, 15 in B. chatricensis, 21 in B. lairokensis), 30– 32 + 2–3 lateral line scales (40–41 + 2–3 in B. ngawa, 36+2 in B. chatricensis, 41+3 in B. lairokensis). In case of Barilius radiolatus, B. bonarensis, B. dimorphicus and B. shacra, the specimens are not available for examination. Thus, the lateral line scale counts used for comparison are from the published data, which might include the pored scales behind the hypural plate which are normally 2–3. However, the differences in the counts are great and we can confirm these to be different. Kar & Sen (2007) listed three species of Barilius viz., B. barna, B. vagra and B. shacra from the Koladyne River basin but they neither gave descriptions

M. Dishma & W. Vishwanath

of the species nor mentioned where the collections were eventually deposited. The three species are not represented from the basin in our collections. However, we compared B. profundus sp. nov. with B. barna, B vagra from the Dikrong and Barak rivers (both Brahmaputra drainage) respectively and with B. shacra using the published data. As noted above, the three species are readily distinguishable from the new species. Comparative material Barilius barila: MUMF 5049, 5051, 83.2–89.5 mm SL, Khuga River, Churchandpur, Manipur, India. Barilius barna: MUMF 27061–27064, 73.0–83.1 mm SL, Dikrong River, Arunachal Pradesh, India. Barilius bendelisis: MUMF 27067–27068, 100.3– 105.8 mm SL, Iyei River, Noney, Manipur, India; MUMF 27069–27072, 72.4–105 mm SL, western side of Maram Khulen & Laironching, Manipur, India. Barilius chatricensis: MUMF 503/1 (holotype), 86.4mm SL, Chatrickong River, Ukhrul District, Manipur, India. 150 km from Imphal. Additional data from Selim & Vishwanath (2002). Barilius dogarsinghi: MUMF 207–210, 52.9–72.2 mm SL, Chakpi stream, Manipur, India. Barilius ngawa: MUMF 149 (holotype), 96.5mm SL, Sherou River (tributary of Manipur river), 83km south of Imphal, Manipur, India; MUMF 27056– 27058, 80.0–82.9 mm SL, Singda, Manipur, India. Barilius lairokensis: MUMF 27075, 105.0 mm SL, Moreh bazar, Moreh, Chandel District, Manipur, India. Barilius vagra: MUMF 4091–4093, 88.0–107.3 mm SL, Barak River, Vanchengphai, Tamenglong District, Manipur, India. Barilius tileo: MUMF 27076, 128.1mm SL, Umtrao River, Byrnihat, Norbong, Ribhoi District, Assam, India. Barilius dimorphicus: Data from Tilak & Husain (1990). Barilius bonarensis: Data from Chaudhuri (1912). Barilius shacra: Data from Talwar & Jhingran (1991). Barilius radiolatus: Data from Gunther (1868).

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New cyprinid fish

M. Dishma & W. Vishwanath

Keys to species of the genus Barilius of northeastern India 1.

Barbels present ............................................................................................................................................... 2 Barbels absent ..................................................................................................................................... B. barna

Barbels 1 pair ......................................................................................................................................... B. tileo Barbels 2 pair .................................................................................................................................................. 3

Scales with blue black spot, predorsal scales 18-20 .................................................................... B. bendelisis Scales without blue black spot ........................................................................................................................ 4

Predorsal scales 15–18 .................................................................................................................................. 5 Predorsal scales 20–26 .................................................................................................................................. 6

Lateral line scales 32–35, depth of body 32.0–37.3% SL ............................................. B. profundus sp. nov. Lateral line scales 38, depth of body 24.6–29.2 % SL ............................................................... B. chatricensis

Mandibular knob not distinct, dorsal fin with a transverse blue black band ............................... B. dogarsinghi Mandibular knob distinct, dorsal fin without transverse band ......................................................................... 7

Lateral line scales 59–70 ................................................................................................................... B. shacra Lateral line scales 42–45 ................................................................................................................................ 8

Pectoral fin as long as head, body with 14–15 bars ............................................................................ B. barila Pectoral fin shorter than head, body with 10–16 bars ..................................................................................... 9

Bars width: one-third of inter-bar width ................................................................................................ B. vagra Bars and inter-bar with equal width ............................................................................................................... 10

10.

Caudal lobes equal ............................................................................................................................ B. ngawa Caudal lobes unequal, lower lobe longer than the upper ............................................................ B. lairokensis

REFERENCES Chaudhuri, B.L. (1912). Descriptions of some new species of freshwater fishes from north India. Records of the Indian Museum 7(5): 437-444+pls. 38–41. Günther, A. (1868). Catalogue of The Fishes in The British Museum. Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History), London 7: i-xx+1–512. Hamilton, F. (1822). An Account of The Fishes Found in The River Ganges and Its Branches. Archibald Constable, Edinburg and Hurst, Robinson, London, 405pp. Hollister, G. (1934). Clearing and dying fishes for bone study. Zoologica 12: 89– 101. Kar, D. & N. Sen (2007). Systematic list and distribution of fishes in Mizoram, Tripura and Barak drainage of Northeastern India. Zoos’ Print Journal 22(3): 2599–2607. Kottelat, M. (1990). Indochinese Nemacheilines, A Revision of Nemacheiline Loaches (Pisces: Cypriniformes) of Thailand, Burma, Laos, Cambodia and southern Vietnam. Verlag, Dr. Friedrich Pfiel, Munchen, 262pp. Kottelat, M. (2001). Fishes of Laos. Wildlife Heritage Trust, Colombo, 198pp. Selim, K. & W. Vishwanath (2002). A new cyprinid fish species of Barilius Hamilton from the Chatrickong River, Manipur, India. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 99(2): 267-270. Talwar, P.K. & A.G. Jhingran (1991). Inland Fishes of India and Adjacent Countries - Vol. 1, Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 541pp. Tilak, R. & A. Husain (1990). Description of a new cyprinid, Barilius dimorphicus (subfamily: Rasborinae) from Rajaji National Park, Uttar Pradesh. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 87(1): 102–105. Vishwanath, W., H.H. Ng, R. Britz, L.K. Singh, S. Chaudhry & K.W. Conway (2010). The status and distribution of freshwater fishes of the Eastern Himalaya region, pp. 22–41. In: Allen, D.J., S. Molur & B.A. Daniel (compilers). The Status and Distribution of Freshwater Biodiversity in The Eastern Himalaya. IUCN, Cambridge, UK and Gland, Switzerland, viii+89pp. Weitzman, S.H. (1962). The osteology of Brycon meeki, a generalized Characid fish, with an osteological definition of the family. Standford Ichthyological Bulletin 8(1): 1–77. 2368

Author Contribution: The study: MD survey, collection, morphometric and anatomic study of bariline fishes of northeastern India and their phylogenetics; WV supervision of taxonomy and phylogeny of freshwater fishes of northeastern India. Current paper: MD detailed examination of the bariline fishes of the Koladyne and its tributaries in Mizoram and comparison with specimens in ZSI, Kolkata and in MUMF. WV supervision in establishing new species and discuss taxonomic status.

Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | February 2012 | 4(2): 2363–2369

New cyprinid fish

M. Dishma & W. Vishwanath

Appendix 1. Biometric data of Barilius profundus sp. nov. Holotype Measurements

Paratypes (N=12)

MUMF 27001

MUMF 27002

MUMF 27003

MUMF 27004

MUMF 27005

MUMF 27021

MUMF 27022

MUMF 27023

MUMF 27024

MUMF 27025

MUMF 27026

MUMF 27027

MUMF 27028

Standard length

71.1

67.7

55.2

61.5

54.5

69.9

64.1

60.9

64.6

58.9

69.8

50.9

55.2

Body depth at dorsal fin origin

22.8

23.5

20.3

22.0

18.6

23.9

23.4

22.4

24.1

21.3

25.6

17.1

18.5

Head length

13.2

12.6

11.2

12.6

11.4

13.5

12.7

12.2

12.4

11.5

13.3

10.7

10.6

Predorsal length

43.2

39.9

34.6

38.7

32.5

42.0

39.5

36.3

39.9

37.7

42.1

30.9

33.1

Prepelvic length

37.2

37.1

30.8

38.3

29.5

38.0

36.7

35.0

36.5

33.3

37.9

23.3

30.4

Pre-anus length

48.2

48.1

40.5

44.9

37.2

50.3

44.8

44.5

48.2

42.6

50.6

38.3

41.0

Preanal length

50.2

50.9

40.7

46.9

40.0

51.1

48.5

45.0

48.9

43.8

50.6

38.3

41.0

Prepectoral length

20.3

16.0

17.5

15.4

18.8

18.5

18.4

18.1

17.0

20.4

15.1

15.6

Pectoral fin length

14.8

14.6

13.1

15.1

12.2

15.2

14.9

14.4

14.1

13.2

15.2

11.9

12.2

Pelvic fin length

9.9

10.0

9.7

9.6

8.7

10.9

9.9

10.1

10.2

9.1

10.9

8.5

8.6

Dorsal fin height

15.4

15.0

12.9

14.8

12.4

16.3

15.0

14.9

15.3

14.7

16.8

13.1

12.4

Dorsal fin base length

11.6

10.5

8.4

10.0

8.8

10.7

11.0

10.0

11.1

10.3

12.1

7.6

8.7

Anal fin length

11.8

11.7

10.1

11.4

10.6

12.3

12.0

11.4

10.8

13.8

10.4

10.2

Caudal peduncle length

10.1

7.5

6.5

6.9

8.4

7.9

8.6

8.0

8.1

9.8

7.5

7.3

Caudal peduncle depth

8.4

8.9

6.6

7.0

6.7

8.3

7.6

8.1

7.4

8.9

6.1

6.6

Snout length

5.7

4.7

4.5

4.4

4.3

5.4

5.0

4.7

5.5

3.8

4.1

Eye diameter

5.3

5.0

4.7

5.0

4.9

5.3

5.1

4.7

5.2

4.9

5.1

4.6

4.3

Interorbital distance

6.6

6.4

5.6

5.7

5.4

7.1

6.3

6.1

5.9

7.1

5.1

5.4

Max. Head width

8.9

8.3

6.6

8.9

7.6

10.7

9.2

8.4

9.9

7.4

10.2

6.7

6.9

Head height at supraoccipital

15.7

15.5

12.5

15.1

12.8

16.5

16.2

14.5

15.7

14.1

18.2

12.4

12.8

ii, 7½

i, 11

Counts

i, 8

ii, 10½

i, 9+8, i

L. l.

32+2

31+3

30+3

32+3

30+3

32+2

31+2

31+3

32+3

31+3

30+3

L.tr.

½/7/1/ ½

½/7/1 /½

½/7/1/ ½

½/7/1 /½

½/7/1/ ½

Predorsal scales

Circumpeduncular scales

Dark blue bars on body

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JoTT Communication

4(2): 2370–2380

Population and prey of the Bengal Tiger Panthera tigris tigris (Linnaeus, 1758) (Carnivora: Felidae) in the Sundarbans, Bangladesh M. Monirul H. Khan Department of Zoology, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka 1342, Bangladesh Email: mmhkhan@hotmail.com

Date of publication (online): 26 Febryary 2012 Date of publication (print): 26 February 2012 ISSN 0974–7907 (online) | 0974–7893 (print) Editor: L.A.K. Singh Manuscript details: Ms # o2666 Received 02 January 2011 Final received 14 November 2011 Finally accepted 29 December 2011 Citation: Khan, M.M.H. (2012). Population and prey of the Bengal Tiger Panthera tigris tigris (Linnaeus, 1758) (Carnivora: Felidae) and their prey in the Sundarbans, Bangladesh. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(2): 2370–2380. Copyright: © M. Monirul H. Khan 2012. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non–profit purposes, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication. Author Details: The author is a wildlife biologist specializing in research and conservation of tigers. Currently, he serves as Associate Professor of Zoology in Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh, and his activities include teaching and research on various aspects of wildlife and wildlife habitats. Acknowledgement: I sincerely acknowledge the financial support from the Save the Tiger Fund, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, USA. Thanks to the Forest Department of Bangladesh for giving the official permission, and providing the local support, that made the project successful. The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) has provided administrative support, and Sarah Christie, Chris Carbone and Marcus Rowcliffe of ZSL have provided technical support to this project. My sincere thanks to Zahangir Alom and all other field assistants who were an integral part of the fieldwork of this project.

OPEN ACCESS | FREE DOWNLOAD

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Abstract: The results from intensive small scale surveys are often difficult to extrapolate to wider spatial scales, yet an understanding at such scales is critical for assessing the minimum densities and populations of rare and wide ranging species. In this paper, the minimum size of population and minimum density estimates of Bengal Tigers Panthera tigris tigris and its prey were conducted from 2005 to 2007 using camera traps for 90 days and using distance sampling surveys for over 200 days, respectively. The results were extrapolated from the core study area in Katka-Kochikhali, southeastern Sundarbans, to five additional sites using indices of abundance. With the use of 10 camera-traps at 15 trap-points, field data provided a total of 829 photos, including seven photos of five individual tigers. A total of 5.0 (SE = 0.98) tigers (adults and sub-adults) are thus estimated in the core area with an estimated density of 4.8 tigers/100km2. Distance sampling surveys conducted on large mammalian prey species obtained an overall density estimate of 27.9 individuals/km2 and a biomass density of 1,037kg/km2. Indices of abundance were obtained by using tiger track sighting rates (number of tracks/km of riverbank) and the sighting rates of the prey species (number of prey/km of riverbank) in the core area and in five additional sites across the region. The densities of tiger tracks and sighting rates of prey were strongly correlated suggesting a wide scale relationship between predator and prey in the region. By combining the estimates of absolute density with indices of abundance, an average of 3.7 tigers/100km2 across the region is estimated, which given an area of 5,770km2, predicts a minimum of approximately 200 tigers in the Bangladesh Sundarbans. Keywords: Camera-trapping, distance sampling, Panthera tigris, prey density, Sundarbans, tiger density track survey.

INTRODUTION The Sundarbans of Bangladesh and India is the world’s largest tidal mangrove forest (Chaudhuri & Choudhury 1994; Khan 2002) and represents a region of international importance (Seidensticker 2004). It has been identified as a Level I Tiger Conservation Unit (TCU), because the habitat offers the highest probability of persistence of tiger population in the long term (Wikramanayake et al. 1999) and holds one of the two largest tiger populations globally (Seidensticker et al. 1999; WWF 1999; Khan 2002, 2004a). Because unfragmented mangrove habitat is naturally inaccessible, this region offers a protected environment with the potential for the long-term conservation of tigers. The Bengal Tiger is catagorized as Endangered globally (Chundawat et al. 2011) and Critically Endangered nationally (in Bangladesh) (IUCNBangladesh 2000). It is listed in the third schedule of the Bangladesh Wildlife Act of 1974, implying its full protection by interdicting killing and capturing (MoEF-Bangladesh 2004). Despite its importance for tiger conservation, there have been a few studies which have used robust and repeatable methods to estimate the Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | February 2012 | 4(2): 2370–2380

Tigers in the Sundarbans

abundance of tigers in the region. MoEF-Bangladesh (2004) has reviewed the previous attempts to measure tiger population in Bangladesh and used the pugmark tracking method extensively during 2004. The method used is an extension of the ethnic methods used by tribal and shikaris in India. Mr. Saroj Rai Choudhury (Choudhury 1970, 1972), a forester from Orissa is responsible for scientifically establishing this postulate (MoEF-Bangladesh 2004). A number of practicing wildlife biologists have further intensified its use (Panwar 1979) or have refined the technique (Singh 2000). Previous attempts to measure tiger population in this area from pugmark censuses or interviews (Hendrichs 1975) have been shown to be unreliable (Karanth et al. 2003; Khan 2004b). Other studies in the region have been based on indirect evidences (Seidensticker & Hai 1978; Seidensticker 1986, 1987; Tamang 1993; Reza 2000; Khan 2004b) or extrapolations from telemetry studies (Barlow et al. 2009). This paper presents the first estimate of tiger density based on camera-trap surveys in the Bangladesh Sundarbans. Since tigers depend on large mammalian prey, the population density of large mammals should be assessed in order to understand the carrying capacity and long-term conservation status of tigers (Sunquist 1981; Karanth & Sunquist 1995; Sunquist et al. 1999). Large mammals including Spotted Deer Axis axis, Wild Boar Sus scrofa and Rhesus Macaque Macaca mulatta together comprise 95% of the biomass consumed by tigers in the Sundarbans (Khan 2008). This study uses estimates of abundance of these species to make inferences about tiger abundance in the wider region. Camera-traps are becoming established as one of the major tools in wildlife monitoring (Rowcliffe et al. 2008) and have been extremely effective at monitoring individually marked species like tigers (Karanth & Nichols 1998; Karanth et al. 2006). However, most camera-trap studies focus on relatively small areas (e.g., typically under 300km2) (Carbone et al. 2001; Karanth et al. 2004). Ideally, we need information on wider spatial scales for wide ranging and rare species. Under such circumstances, it is useful to develop methods to extend camera-trapping results to wider spatial scales through the use of calibrated indices such as track counts (Stander et al. 1997; Stander 1998; Karanth et al. 2003; Stephens et al. 2006). In this paper I present the results of intensive

M.M.H. Khan

monitoring in the core study site, using mark-recapture analysis of data collected from camera-traps (Otis et al. 1978; White et al. 1982; Rexstad & Burnham 1991) and estimates of the main prey species based on distance sampling (Eberhardt 1978; Burnham et al. 1980; Buckland et al. 1993). Then using an indexbased survey of tiger tracks and sightings of their main prey species, I have extended these results to the wider region.

MATERIAL AND METHODS Study Area The Sundarbans is a mangrove swamp comprising mainly holophytic trees with the average canopy height of less than 10m (Hussain & Acharya 1994). The forest floor is approximately 0.9–2.1 m above the mean sea level (Tamang 1993). The Bangladesh Sundarbans covers an area of 5,770km2, of which 1,750km2 is covered by rivers and creeks (Hussain & Acharya 1994). The banks along the shores are cleared by tidal cycles twice per day providing ideal conditions for tiger track counts. All tracks sighted are guaranteed to be relatively fresh (maximum five days) because old tracks are washed away by the tides in about five days. The study was undertaken across six sites in the Bangladesh Sundarbans, of which three are in wildlife sanctuaries (Sundarbans East, Sundarbans South and Sundarbans West) that form a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a total area of 1,397km2. The camera-trap survey was conducted in the Sundarbans East Wildlife Sanctuary (total area of 312km2, between 21049”– 21056”N & 89044”–89052”E), covering only the southern part of the sanctuary. In five additional sites, and in the core study area, lower intensity monitoring methods based on relative abundance of tiger tracks and prey sightings along the riverbanks were used to assess relative abundance. All of the additional sites were of roughly equal size, approximately 170km2 (Table 1 and Image 1). Field study The field study was conducted for more than 200 days from October 2005 to January 2007 (camera-trap survey was conducted for 90 days from 06 September to 04 December 2006), but some of the data on prey

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Tigers in the Sundarbans

M.M.H. Khan

Bangladesh

International boundary Sundarbans

Sundarbans

BANGLADESH INDIA West Bengal

Chandpai Burigoalini Harintana

Katka-Kochikhali Hironpoint Mandarbaria BAY OF BENGAL

Image 1. The Sundarbans of Bangladesh and India showing six sites where the survey on tiger and prey densities was conducted.

Table 1. Six sites in the Sundarbans where the surveys of tiger and prey densities were conducted (each survey site was approximately 170km2) Name of the site

Legal status

Katka-Kochikhali

21049’-21057’N & 89043’-89051’E

Hironpoint

21045’-21052’N & 89021’-89029’E

Mandarbaria

21038’-21047’N & 89012’-89018’E

Harintana

22004’-22011’N & 89042’-89049’E

Chandpai

22018’-22025’N & 89038’-89047’E

Burigoalini

22007’-22015’N & 89007’-89015’E

Geographic location

WS - Wildlife Sanctuary; RF - Reserve Forest

were collected from September 2001 to February 2003. Tigers were identified using their stripe patterns (Schaller 1967; McDougal 1977; Karanth & Nichols 2372

1998) (Image 2), but Goyal & Johnsingh (1996) experienced problems in identifying camera-trapped tigers. An analysis of the capture history was used to estimate capture-recapture analysis (Otis et al. 1978; White et al. 1982; Rexstad & Burnham 1991). This technique as well as others based on the use of cameratrap data has been shown to be effective at extremely low population (Simcharoen et al. 2007; Lynam et al. 2008). The location of camera-trap points were selected to maximize the chances of obtaining tiger photos, based on the presence of earlier tiger signs (tracks, scats, kills, scrapes, scent deposits, etc.) and the intersections of trails (Karanth & Nichols 1998). The trap-points were set approximately 2km apart, typical of other tiger surveys (Karanth et al. 2004) so that it

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Image 2. Camera-trap photos showing the stripe patterns used in the identification of individual tigers. a & b - represent the same tiger; c - represents a different tiger.

was unlikely that any area in the camera-trapping plot had a zero probability of capturing a tiger (Karanth & Nichols 1998). All trap-points were marked on a map using a GPS unit (eTrex Vista C; accuracy: ±15m). The survey area was surrounded on three sides by large rivers. On the northern side, however, I assumed the survey area included a boundary strip of 2km, based on the movements of two recaptured tigers which had crossed traps of about 4km distance (see Karanth & Nichols 1998). The total survey area surrounded by the rivers and accounting for the boundary strip in the

north was approximately 105km2 (Image 3). A total of 10 commercially made Wildlife Pro (made by Forestry Suppliers, Inc.; www.forestry-suppliers. com) camera-trap units were used in the survey area. The camera-traps have protective water-proof housing (with camouflaging colouration). Inside the housing there is a Canon Super Shot fully-automatic 35mm autofocus camera and a motion sensor for triggering the camera. The camera-traps were mounted on wooden posts or on tree trunks where available, about 350cm away from the trail at a height of 45cm (Karanth & Nichols 1998). During the sampling period (06 September to 04 December 2006) the camera-traps were systematically shifted in three camera-trapping sub-plots (Kochikhali, Katka and Chita Katka) in order to cover all the potential trap-points by limited number of camera-trap units (Image 3). The 90-day (24-hour) survey period, was subdivided into two 45-day phases, occasion 1 (when the photographed individual tigers were identified or ‘marked’) and occasion 2 (when both ‘marked’ and ‘unmarked’ individual tigers were photographed). For each occasion the camera-traps were deployed in three consecutive sub-plots, for 15 days each (Image 3). Cameras were placed in pairs at each trap site in order to get photos of both sides of a tiger. Therefore, each sub-plot contained five trap-points with a total of 15. See Table 2 for details of photo captures. Typically for tiger surveys, a maximum of two months is recommended (Karanth et al. 2002), but more time was required in this study because of the limited number of camera-traps and the difficulty of obtaining photographs of tigers. Trapping rates may have been reduced by the absence of obvious trails in the Sundarbans which lowers the chances of predicting their routes of travel. Since the tiger is a relatively long-living and slow-breeding animal (Nowell & Jackson 1996), I assumed that there was no significant change in the dynamics of tiger population during the 90-day sampling period. The camera-traps were checked once every day in order to record the date and location of each photographic ‘capture’. The capture history data were analysed by using CAPTURE2 software programme (www.mbr-pwrc. usgs.gov) following M0 model since the capture probability for all adult tigers were the same. This software was developed to implement closedpopulation capture-recapture models. Since it was

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Sacle = 1: 130,000

Bangladesh

Trap-points of first shift Trap-points of second shift Trap-points of third shift Sanctuary boundary Effectively sampled area

Sunderbans East WS

Trap-point polygon

Image 3. The Sundarbans East Wildlife Sanctuary showing 15 trap-points, trap-point polygon and effectively Â sampled area.

only possible to cover a relatively small part of the Sundarbans with the camera-trap survey, tiger track surveys were used to approximate tiger density over a wider area. The Sundarbans provides ideal conditions for track surveys because the tidal cycles make it easier to assess new and older tracks. Tigers in this region frequently cross the rivers, especially those that are not very wide. 2374

Thus, track counts represent an estimate of recent tiger activity in the area. Counts along riverbanks were used to estimate the relative density of tigers in the core study area and in each of the additional study plots. Since the tiger tracks are visually identifiable (Van Sickle & Linzey 1991; Palomares et al. 1996), especially in the muddy riverbanks, all the fresh tracks (maximum five days old; age assessed on the basis

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Table 2. Species captured in camera-trap photos in the Sundarbans East Wildlife Sanctuary. Species captured in camera-trap photos 1

Bengal Tiger Panthera tigris tigris

No. of photos

Total no. of individuals in photos*

Average no. of individuals/photo

Human Homo sapiens

134

3.44

Spotted Deer Axis axis

606

1,063

1.75

Wild Boar Sus scrofa

128

175

1.37

Rhesus Macaque Macaca mulatta

Lesser Adjutant Leptoptilos javanicus

Red Junglefowl Gallus gallus

1.17

Greater Coucal Centropus sinensis

House Crow Corvus splendens

1.29

Jungle Myna Acridotheres fuscus

Water Monitor Varanus salvator

Total/Overall

829

1,431

1.73

* It often happened, particularly in case of social animals, that more than one individual was in the photo.

of reference observations of the change of conditions of pugmarks and human footprints with time) were counted from the riverbanks. Wide rivers and narrow creeks present a problem with observation and navigation and thus were not surveyed. The survey took place from a dinghy driven slowly at a relatively constant speed. My field assistants and I searched for fresh tracks on both banks of the river. However, the same track, i.e. the same crossing, on two sides of the river was treated as one observation. Binoculars were used whenever necessary for searching tracks and for general observations. Since the rivers were not straight, the speed of the boat (by using a GPS unit) and the total time of observation were recorded in order to convert the travelling distance into equivalent straight distance. Sighting rates of track were compared against the density estimate of tigers obtained from camera-traps in Sundarbans East Wildlife Sanctuary to provide a rough calibration between track sighting rates and tiger density. This was then used to extend my estimate of tiger density in the wider region. The population density of large mammalian prey in the Sundarbans East Wildlife Sanctuary was estimated using distance sampling (Eberhardt 1978; Burnham et al. 1980; Buckland et al. 1993). The transect line length was measured by using a GPS unit. Since the Sundarbans is generally flat, the aerial distance was a close representation of the actual distance covered in line transects. A total of 352 transects of variable

lengths was placed that covered a total of 466.8km length. The sampling effort was uniform for different seasons of the year. My field assistants and I walked along transects at a roughly uniform speed of 1.3km/h and concentrated on detecting the large mammalian prey at their initial locations. For each observation the sighting distance of the animal (when solitary), or of the centre of the group (when in group), was recorded by using a rangefinder (Bushnell Yardage Pro 800; accuracy: ±1.8m). The sighting angles were recorded by using a compass. The work was mainly conducted in the mornings (0600–1000 h) and afternoons (1500– 1900 h) when the prey animals were most active and visible. Animal groups were used as the analytical unit since individual data tend to underestimate the true variance (Southwell & Weaver 1993). DISTANCE 4.0 software (www.ruwpa.st-and.ac.uk/distance) was used to analyse the data derived from line transects to determine the individual density. The relative densities of large mammalian prey in six sites were estimated by counting them along the two banks of rivers in combination with the counts of tiger tracks. Since the vegetation conditions along the riverbanks were similar, it was assumed that the visibility of prey was uniform. As with the tiger estimates, relative sighting rates at Katka-Kochikhali were used to calibrate a density estimate for the wider area across the remaining five study sites. Sighting rates of large mammalian prey from the river surveys were also made across all six sites and these indices of

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prey abundance were compared against the tiger track sighting rates.

Table 3. Individual density and biomass density of tigers and potential prey in the Sundarbans East Wildlife Sanctuary Average mass (kg)*

Population density (no./100 km2) **

Biomass density (kg/100km2)

Bengal Tiger

113

4.8

542

Spotted Deer

2090

98,230

Wild Boar

1,600

650

2,600

Species

A total of 829 photographs of different species was obtained from Katka-Kochikhali site during the survey period, of which there were seven photographs (three in occasion 1 and four in occasion 2, with two ‘recaptures’ in occasion 2) of five individual tigers (Table 2). Using the ‘capture’ history data in CAPTURE2 software programme it was estimated that the absolute number of tigers (adult and subadult) in the 105km2 area in the southeastern end of the Bangladesh Sundarbans is 5 (SE=0.96, capture probability or p-hat=0.70). This means that the tiger density in the area covered by camera-trap survey is 4.8 tigers/100km2. Due to the complexity and lack of correctness of estimating the variance of estimated area sampled by cameratrapping, the standard error for this density estimate was not calculated. However, due to the fact that the sampled area (105km2) was very close to 100 km2, it is assumed that the standard error for the density estimate is very close to 0.96. This is the first estimate of the tiger population density in the Bangladesh Sundarbans that is based on camera-trap survey (Table 3). Based on tiger track counts the relative density of tigers in six different sites was estimated (Table 4). The average of these six sites represents the average for the entire Bangladesh Sundarbans, which is 0.44 tracks/km of riverbank surveyed. The three sites in three sanctuaries clearly had higher densities of tiger tracks than the three sites outside the sanctuaries. The track densities, i.e. relative densities of tigers, were then converted to an estimate of absolute density through extrapolation (Table 4). The average of six sites provides an estimate of 3.7 tigers/100km2 as an average for the entire area. Since the Bangladesh Sundarbans is an area of 5,770km2 it is inferred that, to a rounded figure, the total tiger population size would be approximately 200. Assuming that the tiger density in the Indian Sundarbans (4,263km2) is similar to that in the Bangladesh Sundarbans, we might expect around 150 tigers in the Indian part, forming a single population of around 350 tigers in the entire region. In Katka-Kochikhali the overall density of large mammalian prey (Spotted Deer, Wild Boar and 2376

Rhesus Macaque

*Source: Karanth (1987) for tiger and Karanth & Sunquist (1992) for prey; **See Table 4.

900 Tiger biomass density (kg/100 km2)

RESULTS

800

700

600 R2 = 0.896 500

400

20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 120000 Prey biomass density (kg/100 km2)

Figure 1. Comparison of tiger and large mammalian prey (spotted deer, wild boar and rhesus macaque) biomass densities (kg/100km2) across six sites (1 - Katka-Kochikhali; 2 - Hironpoint; 3 - Mandarbaria; 4 - Harintana; 5 - Chandpai; 6 - Burigoalini) in the Sundarbans of Bangladesh.

Rhesus Macaque) was estimated at 27.9 large prey/ km2. The average number of large mammalian prey along riverbanks in six sites, i.e., the relative density of prey in the Bangladesh Sundarbans is 4.2 large prey/ km of riverbank. The relative density was converted to a rough estimate of absolute density, which is 17.3 large prey/km2 or 1,730 large prey/100 km2. Based on this estimate the total population of three species of large mammalian prey (Spotted Deer, Wild Boar and Rhesus Macaque) in the Bangladesh Sundarbans is inferred at, to a rounded figure of, 99,800. The absolute densities of tigers and three large mammalian prey in the Bangladesh Sundarbans were converted to biomass densities and were found that it is 542kg/100km2 for tigers and 102,430kg/100km2 for three large mammalian prey combined (Table 3). Therefore, the biomass ratio between tigers and prey is

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Table 4. Tiger and prey population densities (extrapolated) and indices of abundance in the Bangladesh Sundarbans

Area surveyed

Location in the Legal Bangladesh status Sundarbans

Absolute density of prey (no. of individuals/ km2)*

Dry season

Wet season

Relative density of tiger [no. of tracks/km riverbanks (± SE)]

Water salinity (ppt)

Relative density of prey [no. of individuals/km riverbanks (± SE)]

Absolute density of tiger (no. of individuals/ 100 km2)*

KatkaKochikhali

Southeast

Wildlife Sanctuary

5-10

0-5

3.97 (± 0.80)

0.17 (± 0.07)

2.42 (± 0.77)

20.9

0.5

6.5

0.58 (± 0.12)

4.8

Hironpoint

South

Wildlife Sanctuary

20-25

15-20

3.66 (± 0.83)

0.15 (± 0.06)

2.36 (± 0.81)

19.3

0.4

6.3

0.51 (± 0.14)

4.2

Mandarbaria Southwest

Wildlife Sanctuary

25-30

20-25

3.62 (± 0.87)

0.15 (± 0.07)

2.40 (± 0.69)

19.1

0.4

6.4

0.54 (± 0.15)

4.5

Harintana

Eastcentral

Reserve Forest

5-10

0-5

1.18 (± 0.61)

0.13 (± 0.07)

1.18 (± 0.59)

6.2

0.4

3.2

0.42 (± 0.17)

3.5

Chandpai

Northeast

Reserve Forest

0-5

0.76 (± 0.39)

0.11 (± 0.05)

0.83 (± 0.45)

4.0

0.3

2.2

0.29 (± 0.19)

2.4

Burigoalini

Northwest

Reserve Forest

20-25

5-10

0.96 (± 0.42)

0.12 (± 0.06)

0.85 (± 0.47)

5.1

0.4

2.3

0.32 (± 0.16)

2.6

Avg

Bangladesh Sundarbans

2.36

0.14

1.67

12.4

0.4

4.5

0.44

3.7

RM - Rhesus Macaque; SD - Spotted Deer; WB - Wild Boar; * - Based on the correlation between absolute and relative densities of tiger and prey in Katka-Kochikhali the absolute densities in other five sites were estimated.

1:189. The biomass densities of tigers and prey show strong relationship (R2 = 0.896) across the six sites (Fig. 1).

DISCUSSION It is always difficult to estimate the population density of a shy and secretive animal like the tiger, which is thinly distributed throughout a large tract. It is even more difficult in the impenetrable swamp of the Sundarbans where tigers are rarely seen by people. Therefore, most of the previous estimates used pugmark census (Choudhury 1970, 1972; Panwar 1979; Singh 2000) and the figures of tiger population in the Bangladesh Sundarbans (official estimates range from 350 to 450 tigers; MoEF-Bangladesh 2004) are much higher than what is estimated in this study. The scenario is the same in the Indian Sundarbans where, according to the official estimate conducted in 2004, there are 274 tigers (Chowdhury & Vyas 2005), which is, in the view of present findings, too optimistic. The wide availability of the pugmarks in the Sundarbans (since the ground is soft) gives some the idea that the tiger density is very high, which is not the case (Khan 2004a). Based on the prey density, and following Karanth & Stith (1999), and Karanth et al. (2004), there is a

previous estimate of tiger density in the Sundarbans East Wildlife Sanctuary (Katka-Kochikhali area is the major part of this Sanctuary) (Khan 2004b) and the estimated figure (4.3 tigers/100km2) is similar to that estimated in the same area during this study (4.8 tigers/100km2). Notably, it is a well-established fact that carnivores and their prey numbers show strong positive correlation in any undisturbed area (Schaller 1967; Sunquist 1981; Seidensticker & McDougal 1993; Carbone & Gittleman 2002; Karanth et al. 2004). Although there is no previous estimate of tiger density in the Bangladesh Sundarbans based on camera-trap survey, Karanth & Nichols (2000) reported the tiger density in the Indian Sundarbans, which was based on camera-trap survey. The density (0.84 tigers/100km2), however, was less than what was found in this study. The results of radio-collaring two tigresses for a few months in the southeastern Sundarbans in Bangladesh estimated the home range sizes (14.6 and 12.8 km2) is relatively very small, suggesting that the tiger density is very high (Barlow et al. 2009). However, the estimated prey density or other estimates of tiger density in the Sundarbans (Karanth & Nichols 2000; Khan 2004b; Sharma 2009; Jhala et al. 2011; this study) contradict this implication. In the Indian Sundarbans, one radio-collared tigress was reported to roam in an area of approximately 50km2 (Sharma 2009), which

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is very different from what was estimated for two radio-collared tigresses in the Bangladesh Sundarbans (Barlow et al. 2009). Despite some drawbacks, camera-trap survey represents an effective method for surveying tigers. In this study, however, only seven photos of the tiger were obtained, because there were very few or no trail in the Sundarbans that are frequently used by tigers and other wild animals. The forest was very dense and there were limited number of camera-traps. Because of the tiger’s low density and shy nature, other methods of animal population estimation like distance or quadrat sampling (Buckland et al. 1993) are of limited value. Although radiotelemetry-derived data can be used in estimating tiger density (Smith et al. 1987a,b; Quigley 1993), the small number of tagged animals, the presence of untagged animals in the population, and the excessive effort involved in capturing and radio-tracking operations limit the usefulness of this method in tiger density estimation (Karanth 1995). The ratio of tiger and large mammalian prey biomass densities (1:189) estimated for the Sundarbans is different from those estimated (calculated from tiger and prey densities) for tiger ranges in the neighbouring countries, e.g., 1:342 in Kanha, India (Schaller 1967; Newton 1987), and 1:391 in Chitwan, Nepal (Tamang 1982). This is an indication of insufficient prey for tigers in the Sundarbans (Khan 2008). The scientific estimate of tiger and large mammalian prey population densities in the Sundarbans that was done in this study will be the key factor in convincing different national and international organisations and communities the potential of the tiger and prey populations in the Sundarbans in the long term. The estimates, however, were largely extrapolations of the absolute densities using indices of abundance. These are not robust estimates, but the indices are correlated between predator and prey, suggesting that they represent a real change in animal abundance across the region (Jhala et al. 2010). The estimates of absolute and relative densities will be useful in temporal monitoring of population trends of tigers and prey in Sundarbans, both inside and outside the sanctuary.

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Justification for delayed publication: Submission of this article to the journal after completion of the fieldwork was delayed because there was an attempt to further enrich the content by inputs from two other carnivore experts, but that ultimately did not work out -- M. Monirul H. Khan.

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JoTT Communication

4(2): 2381–2389

Diversity of scorpion fauna of Saswad-Jejuri, Pune District, Maharashtra, western India Satish Pande 1, Deshbhushan Bastawade 2, Anand Padhye 3 & Amit Pawashe 4 Ela Foundation, C-9, Bhosale Park, SahakarNagar-2, Pune, Maharashtra 411009, India Zoological Survey of India, Western Regional Station, Akurdi, Pune, Maharashtra 411044, India 2 Present address: 7, Madhumalini, 116-Dahanukar Colony, 6th Lane, Kothrud, Pune, Maharshtra 411038, India 3 Department of Zoology, M.E.S. Abasaheb Garware College, Pune, Maharashtra 411004, India Email: 1 pande.satish@gmail.com (corresponding author), 2 dbhushanbastawade@gmail.com, 3 adpadhye@gmail.com, 4 amit.pawashe@gmail.com 1,4 2

Date of publication (online): 26 February 2012 Date of publication (print): 26 February 2012 ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print) Editor: Lionel Monod Manuscript details: Ms # o2910 Received 11 August 2011 Final received 12 December 2011 Finally accepted 28 December 2011 Citation: Pande, S., D. Bastawade, A. Padhye & A. Pawashe (2011). Diversity of scorpion fauna of Saswad-Jejuri, Pune District, Maharashtra, western India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(2): 2381–2389. Copyright: © Satish Pande, Deshbhushan Bastawade, Anand Padhye & Amit Pawashe 2012. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non-profit purposes, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication. Author Details: See end of this article. Author Contribution: SP, Amit Pawashe and DB did the field work. SP and Anand Padhye did statistical analysis. SP, DB and Anand Padhye prepared the manuscript. Acknowledgement: The authors wish to thank Unmesh Barbhai, Kumar Pawar, Dr. M.N. Mahajan, Banda Pednekar, Avadhoot Belsare, Aditya Ponkshe and Pranav Pandit for assistance during field work; Dr. Hemant Ghate, Nilesh Dahanukar and Amod Zambre for suggestions and comments; Dr. Anil Mahabal, o/c, Zoological Survey of India, W.R.C. Akurdi, for their support. The study was funded by Ela Foundation.

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Abstract: Our paper deals with the diversity of the scorpion fauna of Saswad-Jejuri region in western India, and highlights the conservation implications of quantitative studies. Eight species of scorpions from five genera and three families are recorded in 10 microhabitats. Some of these areas are categorized as ‘wastelands’ and hence are vulnerable for land use modifications. The interdependence of such microhabitats and their neglected inhabitants like scorpions is highlighted in this study. This information provides a baseline biological data for further demographic and ecological studies and stresses the need for impact assessment prior to undertaking developmental projects in ‘wastelands’, since arachnids exhibit restricted movements and are vulnerable to habitat modification. Keywords: Arachnid, biodiversity, ecological implications, Heterometrus, Hottentotta, Isometrus, Neoscorpiops, Orthochirus, scorpion.

INTRODUCTION Quantitative documentation of biodiversity is an important aspect of ecology and a popular topic in recent times. Diversity of taxa like birds (Pande et al. 2003, 2004a; Padhye et al. 2007), butterflies (Nayak et al. 2004; Padhye et al. 2006), amphibians (Padhye & Ghate 2002; Dahanukar & Padhye 2005), etc. have been recently studied in Maharashtra, India; however, biodiversity studies of invertebrate groups like arachnids are limited. Although scorpion fauna of India as a whole has been worked out (Tikader & Bastawade 1983), previous studies were restricted to qualitative data collection and analysis and publication of checklists of various regions (More & Khatavkar 1990; Shivshankar 1992). Further, the microhabitats occupied by scorpion fauna are often considered as ‘wastelands’ and are subjected to land use modifications such as plantations for social forestry to meet demands of fuel and fodder, plantations by the forest department, introduction of new irrigation facilities leading to development of orchards, croplands, and other horticultural and beautification activities, industrialization and urbanization. Since minor taxa like scorpions occupy specific microhabitats as shown in this paper, such habitat modifications can have a negative impact on scorpion populations. This paper deals with the diversity of scorpion fauna with a systematic and quantitative approach and highlights the conservation implications of such studies. This is the first such attempt to highlight the diversity of scorpion fauna from India. Saswad-Jejuri region in western India was

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selected as the study area to document the scorpion fauna of the region, in view of the proposed habitat modification activities. Our study provides a baseline biological data for further demographic and broader ecological studies (Pande et al. 2004b, 2007) and emphasizes the need for impact assessment prior to undertaking developmental projects, especially since the taxa like arachnids exhibit restricted movements and are vulnerable to habitat modification.

MATERIAL AND METHODS In all, 10 different quadrates (100x100 m) were randomly selected for bi-monthly sampling for the estimation of diversity and microhabitat preferences of scorpion species from March 2004 to March 2005. The study area was around Saswad (18020’N & 73058’E) and Jejuri (18015’N & 74009’E), Purandar, Pune District, Maharashtra (Fig. 1). Five quadrates were sampled near each of these towns. Ten different microhabitats were encountered in these 10 quadrates, namely, (1) loam and stones on hilltops (Image 1), (2) scrubland with stones (Image 2), (3) veld with stones, (4) red and black soil in croplands (Image 3), (5) grassy hilltops with stones (Image 4), (6) black soil in mango orchards (Image 5), (7) under tree barks (Image 6), (8) hill slopes with boulders (Image 7), (9) eucalyptus plantations (Image 8) and (10) heaps of stony rubble (Image 9). Heterometrus xanthopus (Pocock, 1897) is a psammophilous fossorial scorpion. The shape of the opening of its burrow is typically semi-circular (More

Image 1. Loam on hilltop

& Khatavkar 1990). Usually one member occupies one burrow, except during parturition when young ones may be present with the mother (unpub. pers. obs.). We have taken the number of burrows as a corresponding

Pune

Sasvad Jejuri

Figure 1. The study area of Saswad and Jejuri, Taluka Purandar, Pune District, Maharashtra is shown in this. 2382

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Image 2. Scrubland with stones

Image 3. Red and black soil in cropland

Image 4. Grassy hilltop with stones

Image 5. Black soil in mango orchard

Image 6. Under the tree bark

estimate of their population. We did not excavate every burrow of Heterometrus xanthopus in the study area for the above reason (Image 10). Hottentotta tamulus (Fabricius, 1798), Orthochirus bicolor (Pocock, 1897) and Heterometrus phipsoni (Pocock, 1893) are lapidicolous scorpions found under stones (Image 11 a,b). Heterometrus phipsoni is usually found under

Image 7. Hillslopes with boulders

boulders and hence are readily visible. Isometrus rigidulus Pocock, 1897 and Hottentotta pachyurus (Pocock, 1897) are non-burrowing species. Thus, except Heterometrus xanthopus, all other scorpion species in the study area could be directly counted. We surveyed all the quadrates during the daytime to count the species and number of individuals of each

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Image 9. Heap of stony rubble

Image 8. Eucalyptus plantation

Image 10. H. xanthopus - burrow of this fossorial species

species of scorpions by (a) turning over the stones for Hottentotta tamulus, Orthochirus bicolor, and Heterometrus phipsoni, then replacing them to the original position to avoid habitat modification, (b) counting the burrows for Heterometrus xanthopus and marking each counted burrow to prevent recounting, (c) pealing loose bark of trees for Hottentotta pachyurus and keeping it back to the original position to avoid habitat modification, (d) searching under heaps of stony rubble and haystacks. The surveys were conducted by four experienced and trained observers and scorpion species were identified on the spot using published keys (Tikader & Bastawade 1983); counted

Image 11a. H. phipsoni in a scrubland under a stone 2384

Image 11b. Habitat under the stone

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OBSERVATIONS AND RESULTS

and recorded in the serial order of encounter in the field (Sutherland 2000). In order to estimate the total number of species that could be present in the study area, we constructed species individual curves using data gathered through quadrates. The cumulative number of species recorded was plotted against the number of individuals seen. We fitted Michaelis-Menten equation, given by S = Smax N/ (Km+N), where S is the cumulative number of species, N is the cumulative number of individuals, Smax is the maximum number of species that could be present and Km is the Michaelis-Menten constant (Paranjape & Gore 1997). Margalef’s species richness index was used to compare across microhabitats (Magurran 1988). The α-diversity of scorpion species across microhabitats was calculated using Shannon index of diversity (Magurran 1988). To calculate whether species are distributed evenly across microhabitats, evenness index was used (Magurran 1988). The β-diversity, which represents unshared species, was measured by finding similarity or overlap between scorpion species composition across microhabitats, using Bray-Curtis similarity index (McAleece 1998).

Six species of scorpions in five genera of two families (Buthidae and Scorpionidae) in the quadrate sampling (Table 1), and two species Heterometrus madraspatensis (Pocock, 1900) and Neoscorpiops deccanensis (Tikader & Bastawade, 1978) in two families (Scorpionidae and Euscorpiidae) were found in the study area after quadrate sampling. The species accumulation curve (Fig. 2) also predicts the presence of eight species of scorpions in the study area. However, for the estimation of various indices, only the scorpion species encountered during quadrate sampling were considered (n=6). α Diversity Indices and Relative Abundance Studies: Overall species richness index is 0.75, Shannon diversity index is 1.1, whereas evenness index is 0.6 (Table 1). Percent abundance as shown in Table 1 indicates that Hottentotta tamulus (48.43%) is the most dominant and the most commonly found species while Heterometrus phipsoni (0.13%) is the rarest. Microhabitat wise percent abundance reveals that microhabitat 6 (Black soil in mango orchard) and microhabitat 10 (Heap of stony rubble) are inhabited by a single species each, Hottentotta tamulus and Isometrus rigidulus respectively. However, Hottentotta

Table 1. Microhabitat wise diversity indices and % abundance of scorpions. 1

ALL

0.48

0.62

0.17

0.34

0.35

0.26

0.46

0.24

0.75

H’

0.93

0.86

0.66

0.59

0.46

0.29

0.90

0.57

1.1

E’

0.84

0.61

0.95

0.85

0.67

0.43

0.82

0.83

0.61

82.3

100

8.9

51.9

73.7

48.43

% Abundance of various scorpion species in the study area T%

51.5

69.7

37.3

39.1

15.6

62.7

40.3

38.87

9.4

13.9

27.8

17.7

7.8

26.3

6.54

HP%

0.8

0.13

IR%

100

0.88

91.1

5.16

72.2

RI - Margalef’s species richness index; H’ - Shannon species diversity index; E - Evenness index. T% - Percent abundance of Hottentotta tamulus; H% - Percent abundance of Heterometrus xanthopus; B% - Percent abundance of Orthochirus bicolor; HP% - Percent abundance of Heterometrus phipsoni; IR% - Percent abundance of Isometrus rigidulus; P% - Percent abundance of Hottentotta pachyurus; S - Number of species in that microhabitat. Various microhabitats are as follows: 1 - Loam and stones on hilltop; 2 - Scrubland with stones; 3 - Veld with stones; 4 - Red and black soil in cropland; 5 - Grassy hilltop and stones; 6 - Black soil in mango orchard; 7 - Under tree bark; 8 - Hill slope with stones; 9 - Eucalyptus plantation; 10 - Heaped stone rubble; ALL - Entire study area including all quadrates surveyed.

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S. Pande et al. Bray-Curtis Cluster Analysis (Group Average Link

Species Accumulation Curve

Cumulative no. of species

Heap of stony rubble

Under tree bark

Black soil in mango orchard

Grassy hilltop & stones

Eucalyptus plantation

Red & black soil in cropland

Scrubland with stones

1 0

Veld with stones 0

100

200 300 400 500 600 Cumulative no. of individuals

700

Hill slopes with boulders

800

Figure 2. Species Accumulation Curve of Scorpions of study area. Least square curve had the parameters Smax = 7.36, Km = 124.5, predicting the maximum number of species inhabiting the study area to be 8. Though we could record only 6 species in Quadrates, two more were found out of the Quadrates but in the study area. Black solid line indicates theoretical curve (using Michelis-Menton equation) and Grey line represents the actual quadrate data.

Loam & stones on hilltop 0 % Similarity

100

Figure 3. Dendrogram showing the results of cladistic analysis by Bray-Curtis method for comparison of species composition in various microhabitats in the study area to depict the β diversity.

habitat 8. tamulus is also found in all other microhabitats. On the other hand, Hottentotta pachyurus was observed only in microhabitat 7 and Isometrus rigidulus was found only in microhabitat 10. Microhabitat 2 (Scrubland with stones) showed the highest Richness index (RI = 0.62), while microhabitat 7 showed the lowest RI (0.17%). β diversity study by Cladistic (Bray-Curtis) analysis: Dendrogram (Fig. 3) showing the results of cladistic analysis by Bray-Curtis method for comparison of species composition in various microhabitats in the study area depicts the β-diversity. Comparison of species composition with various microhabitats reveals that microhabitat 10 (Heap of stony rubble) and microhabitat 7 (Under the tree bark) are unique, as they don’t show any similarity with any other microhabitat. This is because they are preferred only by one species each (Isometrus rigidulus and Hottentotta pachyurus, respectively). All other microhabitats are grouped in a clade. Within this clade, there are two clades one comprising of microhabitats 1, 3 and 8 that are more arid and xeric while the other comprising of 2, 4, 5, 6 and 9 that have some kind of vegetation. Habitat 2 is preferred by the maximum number of scorpion species (S=4) while three species are found in habitat 1 and 2386

DISCUSSION India has around 107 species of scorpion fauna of which 38 species are recorded from Maharashtra (Tikader & Bastawade 1983), but recently one more species Orthchirus bastawadei has been added to this list (Zambre et al. 2011). We recorded a total of eight species (8.4% of the total scorpion fauna of India and 23.8% of scorpion fauna of Maharashtra) in the study area. The overall Shannon index is very low indicating low species diversity in the study area. Low α-diversity indices are obvious while studying taxa like scorpions. The scorpions are well known for their restricted movement, cannibalism, predation from nocturnal predators (Pande et al. 2004b), habitat specificity, food size specificity, extreme climate adaptability, and adaptive radiation (Polis 1990; Newlands 1972, 1978). These factors together with a longer life span of most of the arachnid species as compared with many other invertebrates, may act as the limiting factors as far as the species diversity is concerned. Microhabitats 1, 2, and 8 show a higher Shannon index as compared to the other microhabitats indicating a higher diversity. This implies sympatry in these microhabitats. Among these three microhabitats,

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microhabitat 2 shows the highest richness index (RI = 0.62) with four species. However, the highest Shannon index is shown by microhabitat 1 (H’ = 0.93) as the distribution of individuals within three species is more even than habitat 2 and 8 in this microhabitat. Maximum evenness index is shown by habitat 3 (E = 0.93) with only two species as the individuals are distributed more evenly amongst these two species. When we compare the overall percent abundance, Hottentotta tamulus (385/795; 48.43%) appears to be the most dominant species whereas Heterometrus phipsoni (1/795; 0.13%) is the rarest one. However, Heterometrus xanthopus is co-dominant with 38.87% abundance (309/795). Relative abundance of Heterometerous xanthopus could be an underestimate as it is a strictly fossorial species occupying a typical self-excavated burrow (More & Khatavkar 1990; unpub. pers. obs.) that may contain more than one individual. The night surveys using UV torches may reveal their higher abundance. Bray-Curtis analysis showed that two microhabitats 7 and 10 are unique as Hottentotta pachyurus was found only under tree bark (microhabitat 7), while Isometrus rigidulus was seen only under heaped stone rubble (microhabitat 10), hence these two species appear to be more microhabitat specific. Heterometrus phipsoni was seen only in scrubland with stones (microhabitat 2), but this microhabitat was shared by Hottentotta tamulus, though in a very small percentage (8.9%). Therefore, these three microhabitats need to be protected on a priority. All other microhabitats show 50% or more similarity with each other indicating more species overlap. Among these, there are two clades, one comprising of microhabitats that are more arid and xeric while the other comprising microhabitats that have some kind of vegetation, indicating that vegetation is an important microhabitat favorable for a few species such as Hottentotta pachyurus as mentioned by McReynolds (2008). Vegetation is rarely considered as a microhabitat where scorpions are found despite many Buthidae (the bark scorpions) being found on both the ground and on vegetation. In this scenario, it is necessary to protect old trees and snags providing microhabitats such as peeling tree bark where species like Hottentotta pachyurus dwell, particularly because such trees are often felled for firewood. Scrublands with stones are a natural haven for Heterometrus phipsoni and demand protection and

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stony rubble habitats, if left untouched are inhabited by species like Isometrus rigidulus. Warburg (1997) studied biogeographic and demographic changes in the distribution and abundance of scorpions inhabiting the Mediterranean region in northern Israel. Warburg (2000) studied intra- and inter-specific cohabitation of scorpions in the field and the effect of density, food, and shelter on their interactions. Raz et al. (2009) have studied biodiversity, species abundance, inter-slope divergence and other aspects of scorpion fauna of Mt. Carmel, Israel. Thus, scorpion diversity, distribution, abundance as well as other related aspects of scorpion ecology are well studied elsewhere. However, this is the first work on diversity estimates for Indian scorpion fauna. As the study area is considered a wasteland, it is earmarked for development projects such as plantation, beautification, dam construction, urbanization and industrialization that will lead to habitat loss through land use modification (Images 12–14). The present work stresses the need for impact assessment prior to undertaking developmental projects in ‘wastelands’ and may serve as a framework to identify the so called ‘wasteland areas’ with outstanding diversity. Detailed studies on scorpion fauna of India including various ecological aspects such as population estimates, diversity, distribution, abundance, biogeographic and demographic changes, microhabitat preferences, etc. are necessary to understand the potential threats to the scorpion fauna and to direct conservation efforts.

Image 12. Waste land development: cultivation and farming

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Scorpion fauna of Saswad-Jejuri

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Image 13. Industrialization in scrubland. The most important habitat for arachnids

Image 14. Quarrying and stone crushing unit

REFERENCES

(2007). Season and landscape element wise changes in the community structure of avifauna of Tamhini, northern Western Ghats, India. Zoos’ Print Journal 22(9): 2807– 2815. Pande, S., S. Tambe, F.M. Clement & N. Sant (2003). Birds of Western Ghats Konkan and Malabar [Including Birds of Goa]. Bombay Natural History Society and Oxford University Press, Mumbai, 377pp. Pande, S., A. Pawashe, N. Sant & A. Mahabal (2004a). Status, habitat preference and population estimates of nonbreeding shrikes Lanius spp. in Maharashtra and Karnataka states, India. Biological Letters 41(2): 65–69. Pande, S., A. Pawashe, D.B. Bastawade & P.P. Kulkarni (2004b). Scorpions and molluscs: some new dietary records for Spotted Owlet Athene brama in India. Newsletter for Ornithologists 1(5): 68–70. Pande, S., A. Pawashe, M. Mahajan, A. Mahabal & C. Joglekar (2007). Differential effect of habitat and food on breeding success in rural and urban populations of Spotted Owlet (Athene brama). Journal of Raptor Research 41(1): 26–36. Paranjape, S.A. & A.P. Gore (1997). Effort needed to measure Biodiversity. International Journal of Ecology and Environmental Sciences 23: 173–183. Polis, G.A. (eds.) (1990). The Biology of Scorpions. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, 585pp. Raz, S., S. Retzkin, T. Pavlı´cˇek, A. Hoffman, H. Kimchi, D. Zehavi, A. Beiles & E. Nevo (2009). Scorpion Biodiversity and Interslope Divergence at ‘‘Evolution Canyon’’, Lower Nahal Oren Microsite, Mt. Carmel, Israel. PLoS ONE 4(4): e5214, 1–5. Shivashankar, T. (1992). The importance of burrowing for the scorpion H. fluvipes Koch (Arachnida). Journal of Soil Biology and Ecology 12(2): 134–138. Sutherland, W. (2000). The Conservation Handbook. Research, Management and Policy. Blackwell Science, 278pp. Tikader, B.K. & D.B. Bastawade (1983). Fauna of India:

Dahanukar, N. & A.D. Padhye (2005). Amphibian diversity and distribution in Tamhini, northern Western Ghats, India. Current Science 88(9): 1496–1501. Magurran, A.E. (1988). Ecological Diversity and Its Measurement, Chapman and Hall, London, 168pp. McAleece, N. (1998) (Free Software). BioDiversity Professional Beta. The Natural History Museum and The Scottish Association for Marine Sciences. McReynolds, N.C. (2008). Microhabitat preferences for the Errant Scorpion, Centruroides vittatus (Scorpiones, Buthidae). Journal of Arachnology 36(3): 557–564. More, N.K. & R.S. Khatavkar (1990). Burrowing habits of Heterometrus xanthopus. Journal of Soil Biology and Ecology 2: 79–81. Nayak, G., K.A. Subramanian, M. Dadgil, K.P. Achar, Acharya, A.D. Padhye, Deviprasad, G.K. Bhatta, H.V. Ghate, Murugan, P. Pandit, S. Thomas & W. Thomas (2004). Patterns of Diversity and Distribution of Butterflies in Heterogeneous Landscapes of the Western Ghats, India. ENVIS Technical Report, Center for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. No. 18, 1–38pp. Newlands, G. (1972). Ecological Adaptations of Kruger National Park Scorpionids (Arachnida: Scorpionides) Koedoe 15: 37–48. Newlands, G. (1978). Biogeography and Ecology of Southern Africa-Arachnida. Werger, M.J.A. & A.C. van Bruggen (eds.). The Hague, 685–702pp. Padhye, A.D., N. Dahanukar, M. Paingankar, M. Deshpande & D. Deshpande (2006). Season and landscape wise distribution of butterflies in Tamhini, northern Western Ghats, India. Zoos’ Print Journal 21(3): 2175–2181. Padhye, A.D. & H.V. Ghate (2002). An oerview of amphibian fauna of Maharashtra State. Zoos’ Print Journal 17(3): 735–740. Padhye, A.D., M. Paingankar, N. Dahanukar & S. Pande 2388

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Scorpion fauna of Saswad-Jejuri

Scorpions: Scorpionida: Arachnida—Vol. III. Director, Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta (ed.). Published by Director, Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta, 671pp. Warburg, M.R. (1997). Biogeographic and demographic changes in the distribution and abundance of scorpions inhabiting the Mediterranean region in northern Israel. Biodiversity and Conservation 6: 1377–1389. Warburg, M.R. (2000). Intra- and interspecific cohabitation of scorpions in the field and the effect of density, food, and shelter on their interactions. Journal of Etholgical Society 18: 59–63. Zambre, A., Z.A. Mirza, R.V. Sanap, R. Upadhye & S.M.M. Javed (2011). A new species of Orthochirus Krsch, 1892 (Scorpiones: Buthidae) from Maharashtra, India. Euscorpius (Occasional Publications in Scorpiology) 107: 1–12.

S. Pande et al. Author Details: Satish Pande is a Fellow of the Maharashtra Academy of Sciences. He is an Interventional Vascular Radiologist and Associate Professor of Radiology at KEM Hospital, Pune. He works in ecology and field ornithology and has made several video films on raptor ecology, marine ecosystem and conservation. He has published more than 40 papers and has authored several field guides and popular books on ornithology, nature education, orchids and other subjects for popularization of science and to promote conservation. Deshbhushan Bastawade is an arachnologist and co-author of ‘Fauna of India –Scorpions’ (1983), published by the Director, Zoological Survey of India. He has several scientific papers to his credit. He recently retired from the Zoological Survey of India, Western Regional Station, Akurdi, Pune. Anand Padhye is Associate Professor of Zoology in M.E.S. Abasaheb Garware College, Pune. He is a member of the Amphibian Specialist Group of the IUCN. He has published several scientific papers on biodiversity of the northern Western Ghats. Amit Pawashe is an avid conservationist with interest in field work related to ornithology. He likes to draw birds. He gives lectures and conducts seminars to promote nature conservation. Justification for delayed publication: This study is the first of its kind from India and will serve as a guideline for future studies on neglected taxa such as arachnids. Since this is an ongoing study in which several ecological questions are being addressed, the data was not published earlier. Several habitats that were once occupied by scorpion species mentioned in this paper have been recently either destroyed or permanently modified for development projects such as industrialization, urbanization and quarrying. We are losing many such important habitats, which are considered wastelands causing an irreversible damage to lesser known taxa -- Authors

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JoTT Communication

4(2): 2390–2397

Ecology and conservation of threatened plants in Tapkeshwari Hill ranges in the Kachchh Island, Gujarat, India P.N. Joshi 1, Ekta B. Joshi 2 & B.K. Jain 3 Sahjeevan, 175-Jalaram Society, Vijay Nagar, Bhuj, Kachchh, Gujarat 370001, India Matruchhaya Kanya Vidhyalay, Matruchhaya Road, Bhuj, Kachchh, Gujarat 370001, India 3 M.G. Science Institute, Gujarat Uiniversity, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India Email: joshi_pn@yahoo.com (corresponding author), noopur_pj@yahoo.co.in, bkjain_mgsc@yahoo.com 1 2

Date of publication (online): 26 February 2012 Date of publication (print): 26 February 2012 ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print) Editor: N.P. Balakrishnan Manuscript details: Ms # o2410 Received 23 February 2010 Final received 03 November 2011 Finally accepted 24 January 2012 Citation: Joshi, P.N., E.B. Joshi & B.K. Jain (2012). Ecology and conservation of threatened plants in Tapkeshwari Hill ranges in the Kachchh Island, Gujarat, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(2): 2390–2397. Copyright: © P.N. Joshi, Ekta B. Joshi & B.K. Jain 2012. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non-profit purposes, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication. Author Details: See end of this article. Author Contribution: All author contributed in the study as well as in the current paper Acknowledgements: Shri. Maneklal ShahDada, Trustee; Mrs. Premlataben Nehlani, Principal and Mrs. Jyotiben Chandwani, ExPrincipal, Matruchhaya Kanya Vidhyalay, Station Road, Bhuj were the constant source of encouragement and support. We thank them for proving all facilities in the School. We would like to thank Mr. R.L. Meena, IFS, Conservator of Forests, Kachchh Circle; Mr. L.N. Jadeja (Former DCF-West), Mr. D.T. Vasavada, (DCFWest), Mr. H.P. Waria (ACF) and Mr. M.B. Patel (RFO) (Kachchh West Division), Gujarat State Forest Department (GSFD), Bhuj for giving permission to work in the Tapkeshwari Hill Range Forests.

Abstract: The survey was conducted in Tapkeshwari Hill Range (THR) areas, wherever threatened plant species were said to exist, based on secondary information in literature. Thirteen plant species categorized as ‘Threatened’ by the World Conservation Monitoring centre (WCMC 1994) and also listed under various threat categories in the Red Data Book of Indian Plants (Nayar & Sastry 1988) were surveyed in the THR. All the RET plants reported from the study area occupied eight major habitat types. Thorn mixed forests harbored the highest number of individuals (560) of all RET plants, followed by open scrubs (345 individuals), Acacia senegal forests (328) and thorn mixed scrubs (293). Field observations showed that except Helichrysum cutchicum, all the other RET plant species were reported with very low seedlings and regeneration ratio. This paper discusses the status, distribution and threats faced and the conservation implications at border regions of some of the threatened plants of the arid Kachchh District. Keywords: Conservation, distribution, ecology, endangered, rare, threatened, threats.

Introduction Zietsman et al. (2008) stated that small and isolated populations often suffer from disrupted biological interactions. Nearly 1500 species of higher plants in India are listed as threatened, most of which are angiosperms (Daniels & Jayanthi 1996). These plants have their own ecological role in the ecosystem and therefore, the conservation status of lesser known plant species and isolated populations need to be assessed both within individual populations and at the metapopulation level (Shaw & Burns 1997). There is reported work in the past in Tapkeshwar Hill Range (THR) on threatened species, especially their ecological requirements. This study is intended to highlight the status and distribution of the species in the study area, the ecological characteristics necessary for their survival, and the threats faced by some of the species designated by following the criteria devised by WCMC and IUCN (Nayar & Sastry 1988; WCMC 1994; Bhandari et al. 1996; GES et al. 2002).

Materials and Methods

OPEN ACCESS | FREE DOWNLOAD

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The study area (Tapkeshwari Hill Range - THR) of more than 140km2 (14,400ha) covering nine villages under two taluks, i.e. Bhuj and Mundra was surveyed (Image 1). THR is the largest unexplored hilly tract in the district. It is close to Bhuj City, the district headquarters (7km) and provides a high diversity of floral species in various vegetation types or Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | February 2012 | 4(2): 2390–2397

Threatened plants in Tapkeshwari Hill

habitats like Euphorbia scrubs, Prosopis scrubs, thorn mixed scrubs, open scrubs, thorn mixed forests with Acacia senegal, A. nilotica and Salvadora mixed (Image 2). Considering the high floral diversity and unique vegetation assemblage of this range, it has been suggested that, this tract and adjoining sites may be declared as Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESA) (Joshi 2002). The selected hill ranges experience extremes of weather condition and have three seasons, consisting of winter, summer and monsoonâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;winter (November to February; minimum averaging 100C), summer (March to June; maximum 38.70C) and monsoon (July to September; average 394.7mm in 2007-2009 and for 16.2 days). The survey was conducted in the study areas wherever rare, endangered and threatened (RET) plant taxa were said to exist, based on information in the literature (Nayar & Sastry 1988; WCMC 1994; GES et al. 2002). In addition, other adjoining areas, which had similar habitat types where the plants were seen during the survey, were also searched. A combination of belt transects with centred quadrates method were used for sampling. Belt transects of 5m width and length

P.N. Joshi et al.

Image 2. Overall distribution of RET plants in various habitats

extending to the entire width of the patch were laid. Within this belt, species specific search was carried out and once a target species was located, a speciescentred circular plot of 5m radius in the case of shrubs and 1 to 2 m radius in the case of herbs were laid. In case of abundance of plants, belt transects radiating from the edge of the aquatic body in eight directions were laid to assess the number, and the extent of their spread from the main microhabitat was used to record all other parameters as above.

Image 1. The location of study area Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | February 2012 | 4(2): 2390â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2397

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Results IUCN- RET Plants Reports Thirteen plant species categorized as threatened by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC 1994) and also listed under various threat categories in the Red Data Book of Indian Plants (Nayar & Sastry 1988) were surveyed in the THR. In many rare species classifications, including the Red Book listings of the IUCN, two types of rarity—natural and induced—are not always clearly distinguished. Some species that are naturally rare are also ranked as threatened with extinction. While naturally rare species can be more vulnerable to extinction than common ones, rarity in itself is not synonymous with extinction threat. Understanding the difference between natural and induced rarity is important for focusing conservation efforts. Out of the 19 RET plants recorded so far from Kachchh (Shah 1978; Nayar & Sastry 1988; Raole 1993; WCMC 1994; GES et al. 2002), 13 taxa were located in the study area: six herbs, four undershrubs, two shrubs and one climber. Among these, Dipcadi erythraeum, Dactyliandra welwitschii, Indigofera caerulea var. monosperma and Pavonia ceratocarpa had very low numbers, i.e. 9, 13, 16 and 19 individuals, respectively, and had highly restricted distribution in THR. Commiphora wightii, Ipomoea kotschyana, Helichrysum cutchicum and Campylanthus ramosissimus showed wider distribution and had 612, 440, 245 and 235 individuals, respectively (Table 1). The details on abundance, habitats and threats of each taxon with their present status mentioned by different authorities are given in Table 1. Distribution and age structure status Overall distribution status of RET taxa in the study area: All the RET plants reported from the study area occupied eight major habitat types, of which thorn mixed scrub, open scrub and Acacia senegal forest harbored the highest number (10 in each) of taxa. The second highest number of taxa (9) was recorded from thorn mixed forest and Euphorbia scrub and so on (Table 2). Interestingly, thorns mixed forest harbored the highest number of individuals (560) of all RET plants, followed by open scrub (345 individuals), Acacia senegal forest (328), thorn mixed scrub (293) and so on (Fig. 1). 2392

Campylanthus ramosissimus, Ipomoea kotschyana and Pavonia ceratocarpa were restricted to a single favorable habitat, viz., open scrub, thorn mixed forest and Euphorbia scrub respectively. Commiphora wightii, Convolvulus stocksii, Ephedra foliata and Helichrysum cutchicum also showed more affinity to the thorn mixed scrub (31.37%), thorn mixed forest (44.88%), thorn mixed forest (45.45%) and Acacia senegal forest (30.20%) respectively (Table 2). Figure 1 shows there is no co-relation between the total number of plots (laid down for sampling) and individual count of RET plants in each habitat in the study area. Age structure status of RET plants in THR: In this title detailed study on the RET plant species reproduction (with different age classes), regeneration, recruitment and adult plants were documented. However, a total of 13 species have been reported as threatened species in the study area. Only four species like Campylanthus ramosissimus, Citrullus colocynthis, Commiphora wightii and Helichrysum cutchicum were recorded under various reproduction classes in the sample area (Table 3). Quantification of the reproductive stage of annual herbaceous plants is difficult when compared to bushy perennials because of their smaller size and very short life spans. It is further complicated if it has restricted distribution and low abundance. Within the sample area, field observation showed that except Helichrysum cutchicum, all other RET plant species are reported with very low seedlings and regeneration ratio (Table 3) when compared with the adult plants. In addition, low abundance of some RET plant species could be inherent and for others it may be failure of regeneration. Threats faced The details of the different kinds of threats faced by the RET plants species were also reported with respect to different stresses and the total number of plants affected along with information on each threat. Species-wise natural and anthropogenic threats faced and the individuals affected are given in Table 4. Natural and anthropogenic disturbances can have dramatic consequences for population growth, particularly for small populations of threatened plants (Coates et al. 2006; Tian et al. 2007); a plant species might be naturally rare because its habitat is restricted

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Threatened plants in Tapkeshwari Hill

P.N. Joshi et al.

Table 1. Ecology and distribution of RET plants in various habitats Species

Preferable habitat

Family

Campylanthus ramosissimus Wt.

Scrophulariaceae

235

Open scrub

Restricted to certain Habitat loss sandstone formations and lime stone hills

Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Soland.

Cucurbitaceae

Thorn mixed forest

Habitat loss

Recorded on sand dunes and sandy grounds

Commiphora wightii (Arnott) Bhandari

Burseraceae

612

Thorn mixed scrub

Over exploitation

Threatened Dominant on rocky hillocks Not Evaluated and hard gravelly soils Indeterminate Common

Rao 1981 IUCN WCMC 1994 CREB-GUIDE 2002

Convolvulus stocksii Boiss.

Convolvulaceae

127

Thorn mixed forest

Over grazing

Mostly restricted to loamy and gravelly soils with moderate soil depth

Threatened Rare Indeterminate Common

Rao 1981 Sabnis & Rao 1983 WCMC 1994 CREB-GUIDE 2002

Dactyliandra welwitschii Hook.f.

Cucurbitaceae

Thorn mixed forest

Mostly associated with Euphorbia cactus

Common Data Deficient

Bhandari 1990 CREB-GUIDE 2002

Dipcadi erythraeum Webb. & Berth.

Liliaceae

Open scrub

Erosion

Site specific and require moist soil substratum

Rare Indeterminate Common

Rao 1981 WCMC 1994 CREB-GUIDE 2002

*Ephedra foliata Ephedraceae Boiss. & Kot.ex Boiss

Thorn mixed forest

Cutting associated plants

Mainly found on sandy, gravelly or even rocky areas

Rare Not Evaluated Vulnerable

Rao 1981 IUCN CREB-GUIDE 2002

Helichrysum cutchicum (C.B. CI.) Rolla Rao et Des.

245

Acacia senegal forest

Prefer undulating terrain Habitat and sand stone with degradation sparse grasses cover

Rare Rare & Endemic Lower Rick

Nayar & Sastry 1988 WCMC 1994 Sabnis & Rao 1983 CREB-GUIDE 2002

Found on pebbly and gravely substrate with sandy substratum

Rare Rare and Endemic Vulnerable

Nayar & Sastry 1988 WCMC 1994 Rao,K.S.S 1981 CREB-GUIDE 2002

Asteraceae

Threats

Remarks

Status Rare

Source

Endangered

Nayar & Sastry 1988 WCMC 1994 CREB-GUIDE 2002

Rare Common

Bhandari 1990 CREB-GUIDE 2002

Indigofera caerulea Roxb. var. monosperma (Sant.) Sant.

Fabaceae

Open scrub

Over grazing

Ipomoea kotschyana Hoc. ex Choisy

Convolvulaceae

440

Thorn mixed forest

Sand mining

Sandy substratum and site specific

Common Not Evaluated Indeterminate Common

Rao 1981 WCMC 1994 CREB-GUIDE 2002

Pavonia ceratocarpa Mast.

Malvaceae

Euphorbia scrub

Loamy soil with moderate soil depth

Rare Indeterminate Endangered

Rao 1981 WCMC 1994 CREB-GUIDE 2002

Sida tiagii Bhandari

Malvaceae

Acacia senegal forest

Found mainly on open Habitat loss sandy ground with sparse vegetation cover

Common Indeterminate Common

CREB-GUIDE 2002 WCMC 1994 CREB-GUIDE 2002

Tribulus rajasthanensis Bhandari et Sharma

Zygophyllaceae

Euphorbia scrub

Habitat Rocky plateau and degradation sandstone hills

Rare Indeterminate Endangered

IUCN WCMC 1994 CREB-GUIDE 2002

* - Wild gymnosperm species

(de Lange & Norton 2004). Many species at risk of extinction in the United States are declining because of habitat loss and degradation (Hodges & Elder 2008). Selective cutting causes microclimatic changes and decreases the amount of old and dead trees, which may threaten the persistence of many threatened species (Pykala 2007). In case of Campylanthus ramosissimus, the common and major threat faced was browsing by cattle, goats and sheep; habitat degradation and some individuals

by termites. For Citrullus colocynthis, soil collection in dry riverine/nallahs and naturally dry conditions are prominent threats. Commiphora wightii is threatened due to its illegal exploitation by pharmaceutical and perfumery industries (Sabnis & Rao 1983). It is also used as folk medicine and is one of the highly commercially exploited species. Poor techniques associated with tapping of gum resin have lead to its total destruction in its natural habitat (Cooke 1958; Kumar & Bhandari 1994). During this study it was

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Threatened plants in Tapkeshwari Hill

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Table 2. Distribution of rare, endangered and threatened plants in various habitats in THR

17 77

0.00

14.17

13.39

0.00

30.77

44.44

0.00

0 4

254 plots in 37 transects

Dactyliandra welwitschii Dipcadi erythraeum Ephedra foliata Helichrysum cutchicum Indigofera caerulea var. monosperma

112

44.88

0.00

46.15

0.00

55.56

0.00

Rel%

6.30

12.58

A. nilotica forest

26.15

Rel%

Convolvulus stocksii

Rel%

9.64

Total plots

0.00

Total species

4.62

31.37 123 20.10

Commiphora wightii

0.00

24.62

4.62

12.00 18.46

18.30

5.56

8.00

1.31

612

21.26

0.00

127

0.00

3.00

23.08

0.00

Rel%

16.92

192

Citrullus colocynthis

0.00

Salvadora mixed

1.14

A. senegal forest

4.62

26.81

Campylanthus ramosissimus

Rel%

Thorn mixed forest 0

Ret plants

Open scrub

Thorn mixed scrub

11.49 132 56.17

Prosopis scrub

Rel%

5.53

Euphorbia scrub

Rel%

RET plants in various macro habitat

0.00

235

7.27

0.00

12.73

7.27

45.45

23.64

3.64

0.00

13.88

6.12

8.98

18.37

13.06

30.20

9.39

0.00

245

0.00

18.75

37.50

6.25

0.00

Ipomoea kotschyana

0.00

335

76.14

14.77

0.00

40.00

9.09

440

Pavonia ceratocarpa

68.42

10.53

0.00

21.05

0.00

Sida tiagii

18.92

0.00

10.81

13.51

21.62

0.00

Tribulus rajasthanensis

30.23

23.26

11.63

0.00

18.60

4.65

0.00

Overall total ret plants

205

10.70

2.61

293

15.29 345 18.01

560

29.23

328

17.12

3.76

3.29

1916

Total plots in each habitat

10.6

25.6

13.4

9.84

2.36

1.18

254

560

500 400

345

293

300

328

205

200 100

ixe

st re

m ra do

ilo

lva Sa

A. n

se n A.

fo a tic

al eg

ixe m n or

st fo

re fo d

or Th

b sc ru

m n

O pe

d ixe

is so p Pr o

sc r

ru sc ia rb ho Eu p

Total no. of RET plants

600

Habitats 600 500

Numbers

400 300 200 100 0

4 5 Habitats

Figure 1. Co-relation between total number of plots and individuals of RET plants in various habitats

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9.07

noted that it was facing four types of anthropogenic and two types of natural threats (Table 4). Dipcadi erythraeum and Ephedra foliata were threatened by habitat degradation and soil erosion in the study area. No threats were observed on Dactyliandra welwitschii, Indigofera caerulea var. monosperma, Pavonia ceratocarpa and Sida tiagii, during the present investigation, but grazing in the area of occurrence of the species could affect these species by trampling and top soil removal by cattle. In-depth studies are required to identify the threats faced by the species. In the case of Ipomoea kotschyana and Tribulus rajasthanensis, no specific threats were noted, but habitat degradation was observed at a few sites. The subjective rating of threats based on the field observation showed that except Convolvulus stocksii, all other RET plant taxa faced major threat in the form of habitat degradation (anthropogenic stress or threat) (Table 4; Image 3) due to excessive livestock grazing.

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Threatened plants in Tapkeshwari Hill

P.N. Joshi et al.

Table 3. Regeneration status of rare, endangered and threatened (RET) plants Area surveyed (In km.)

Total adult plants (>60cm height)

Density/ ha

1.57

0.69

3.77

Sampled units (In ha)

Total no. of plants Seedlings (<10cm)

Regeneration (>10–25 cm)

Recruitment (>25–60 cm)

20.36

12 (37.50%)

7 (21.87%)

2 (6.25%)

13.02

3 (33.33%)

286

75.84

34 (11.88%)

19 (6.64%)

13 (4.55%)

149

94.82

65 (43.63%)

38 (25.51%)

30 (2.14%)

Campylanthus ramosissimus 5.00 Citrullus colocynthis 2.20 Commiphora wightii 12.00

Helichrysum cutchicum 5.00

1.57

Discussion and Conclusions The phytosociological analysis with ecological information of RET plants revealed that the Campylanthus ramosissimus, Commiphora wightii, Helichrysum cutchicum and Ipomoea kotschyana have abundant populations in the THR. These species require site-specific conservation strategies with

the help of the forest department for their long term survival in the study area. Among the assessed 13 species, five species are reported to be medicinally important in Kachchh (Joshi 2002; Silori et al. 2005; GUIDE 2009). Of these Citrullus colocynthis, Dactyliandra welwitschii, Ephedra foliata and Tribulus rajasthanensis are lightly used, while Commiphora wightii is heavily exploited

Table 4. Information on threats and total counts of RET plant affected Stress RET plant species

Total

Campylanthus ramosissimus

235

Citrullus colocynthis

Commiphora wightii

612

Convolvulus stocksii

127

Dactyliandra welwitschii

Anthropogenic Habitat Brow- EncroaCutting Degrasing chment dation 27

Natural

Total Affected

Total Rel %

Total

Rel %

Termites

Dry

Erosion

Total

Rel %

19.37

20.59

19.66

5.08

8.82

6.00

100

31.75

25.49

126

30.22

7.30

5.52

9 11

Dipcadi erythraeum

0.63

1.96

0.96

Ephedra foliata

1.27

3.92

1.92

Helichrysum cutchicum

245

11.11

39.22

17.99

Indigofera caerulea var. monosperma

Ipomoea kotschyana

440

22.22

16.79

Pavonia ceratocarpa

Sida tiagii

Tribulus rajasthanensis

1.27

0.96

Overall total Rel % respectively

1916

185

315

17.14

18.73

5.40

58.73

100.00

102

22.55

20.59

56.86

100.00

Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | February 2012 | 4(2): 2390–2397

100.00

417 21.76

100.00

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Threatened plants in Tapkeshwari Hill

P.N. Joshi et al.

tional health care system for healing various types of diseases.

References

Image 3. RET plants affected through various threats

for local medicine. It has been reported that a mature C. wightii (Guggal), can produce 250–500 of gum (Atal et al. 1975) and an estimated 300–400 tonnes of Guggal has been sold in Bhuj every year. However, this plant was found to be widely distributed in the study areas as well as in Kachchh. Crude methods of gum extraction from younger plants (Joshi et al. 2004) are likely to affect its abundance in the future. C. wightii is distributed in patches along the study area. This species, being one of the most valuable medicinal plants, needs special attention for its conservation in the wild as well as by promotion through cultivation. Furthermore, this species is endemic to arid and semi-arid regions of the Indian subcontinent (Bole & Pathak 1988; Dixit & Rao 2000; GES et al. 2002) and has been listed under promotional programmes of the National Medicinal Plant Board (NMPB), New Delhi. During surveys certain localities such as the site between Sanatorium (23010’39.5”N & 69038’35.4”E) and Tapkeshwari Mata Temple in Tapkeshwari MPCAs (Medicinal Plants Conservation Areas) were observed with large patches of C. wightii. Likewise, the site between geo-coordinates 23011’43.6”N and 69025’10.0’E to 23011’37.6”N and 69024’50.3’E within THR areas has abundant population of this species. These two sites may be identified for regulated harvesting and seed collection for ex situ conservation of this species by Gujarat State Forest Department. Awareness of the rarity and the conservation significance of the different species should be created among the locals especially the native healers involved in using these medicinally important RET plants in tradi2396

Atal, C.K., O.P. Gupta & S.H. Abag (1975). Commiphora mukul: Sources of Guggal in Indian Systems of Medicine. Economic Botany 29: 208–218. Bhandari, M.M., D.D. Kaushik & N.S. Shekhawat (1996). Rare, Threatened and Endangered Plants of the Indian Desert - An Action Plan for their Conservation. Final consolidated report submitted to Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India, New Delhi, 122pp. Bhandari, M.M. (1990). Flora of the Indian Desert. Scientific Publishers. Jodhpur, Rajasthan, 435pp. Bole, P.V. & J.M. Pathak (1988). The Flora of Saurashtra (Part-II). Botanical Survey of India (BSI), P-8. Brabourne Road Calcutta, 302pp. Coates, F., I.D. Lunt & R.L. Tremblay (2006). Effects of disturbance on population dynamics of the threatened orchid Prasophyllum correctum D.L. Jones and implications for grassland management in south-eastern Australia. Biological Conservation 129: 59–69. Cooke, T. (1958). The Flora of the Presidency of Bombay. Reprinted - Botanical Survey of India, Calcutta, 574pp. Daniels, R.J.R. & M. Jayanthi (1996). Biology and conservation of endangered plants: The need to study breeding systems. Tropical Ecology 37(1): 39–42. de Lange, P.J. & D.A. Norton (2004). The ecology and conservation of Kunzea sinclairii (Myrtaceae), a naturally rare plant of rhyolitic rock outcrops. Biological Conservation 117: 49–59. Dixit, A.M. & S.V.S. Rao (2000). Observation on distribution and habitat characteristics of Gugal (Commiphora wightii) in the arid region of Kachchh, Gujarat (India). Tropical Ecology 41 (1): 81–88. GES, MSU & GUIDE (2002). Conservation of rare and endangered biodiversity of Gujarat. Final Project Report submitted to Gujarat Ecology Commission, Vadodara, 428pp. GUIDE (2009). Establishment of Medicinal Plants Conservation Areas (MPCAs) of Highly Traded and Rare Medicinal Species in Kachchh Saline Desert. Gujarat Institute of Desert Ecology (GUIDE); Bhuj-Kachchh (Gujarat), India, 107pp. Joshi, P.N. (2002). Study of Ethnobotanical Angiosperms of Bhuj and Mandvi Talukas of Kachchh, Gujarat. PhD Thesis. Department of Botany, Bhavnagar University, Bhavnagar, 341pp. Joshi, P.N., J. Joshua & S.F.W. Sunderraj (2004). Population structure and dynamics of threatened plant species in Bhuj and Mandvi Talukas of Kachchh District. Advances in Biological Sciences 3: 13–17. Kumar, A. & M.M. Bhandari (1994). Commiphora wightii

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Threatened plants in Tapkeshwari Hill

–A threatened medicinal plant of the Thar Pradesh. In: Etnobiology in Human Welfare. Abstracts of the 4th International congress of Ethnobiology, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India, 17–21 November, 307pp. Nayar, M.P. & A.R.K. Sastry (1988). Red Data Book of Indian Plants—Vol. 2. Botanical Survey of India. Calcutta, 271pp. Pykala, J. (2007). Implementation of Forest Act habitats in Finland: Does it protect the right habitats for threatened species? Forest Ecology and Management 242: 281–287. Rao, K.S.S. (1981). Studies on the flora of South Eastern Kutch. Ph.D Thesis. M.S. University, Vadodara. Raole, V.M. (1993). Studies on endangered and endemic desert taxa. PhD Thesis. Department of Botany, M.S. University, Vadodara. Sabnis, S.D. & K.S.S. Rao (1983). Observation on some rare and endangered endemics of south eastern Kachchh, pp. 71–77. In: Jain, S.K. & R.R. Rao (eds.). Assessment of Threatened Plants of India. Botanical Survey of India, Howrah. Shah, G.L. (1978). Flora of Gujarat State. University Press, Sardar Patel University. Vallabh Vidyanagar, 1074pp. Shaw, W.B. & B.R. Burns (1997). The ecology and conservation of the endangered endemic shrub, Kowhai Ngutukaka Clianthus puniceus in New Zealand. Biological Conservation 81: 233–245. Silori, C.S., A.M. Dixit, L. Gupta & N. Mistry (2005). Observation on medicinal plant richness and associated conservation issues in district Kachchh, Gujarat, Trivedi, P.C. (ed.). In: Medicinal Plants: Utilization and Conservation. Rajasthan University, Rajasthan. Tian, Z., C. Weilie, Z. Changming, C. Yue & Z. Binghui (2007). Plant biodiversity and its conservation strategy in the inundation and resettlement districts of the Yangtze Three Gorges, China. Acta Ecologica Sinica 27(8): 3110−3118. WCMC (1994). Status report as of 24 November 1994, Gujarat, Printout from plant database BG- BASE. World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Zietsman, J., L.L. Dreyer & K.J. Esler (2008). Reproductive biology and ecology of selected rare and endangered Oxalis L. (Oxalidaceae) plant species. Biological Conservation 141: 1475–1483.

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P.N. Joshi et al. Author Details: Dr. P.N. Joshi has a research experience of 12 years and published 48 research articles on plant ecology, participatory natural resource management and conservation. He is the registered member of IUCN – The World Conservation Union: Species Survival Commission Indian Subcontinent Plant Specialist Group (SSC-ISPSG) and Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy (IAAT). Dr. Ekta B. Joshi, has a PhD in Plant Science (Ecology, Taxonomy and Conservation). She has research experience of five years and published eight articles in the fields of plant taxonomy, conservation of rare and endangered plants, ethnobotany among others. Dr. B.K. Jain, Principal in M.G.Science Institute, Ahmedabad and has a research and teaching experience of more than 20 years. He has published several books on vegetation science and is doing research in various branches of botany.

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JoTT Short Communication

4(2): 2398–2401

Genitalic studies of Amerila eugenia (Fabricius) (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae) from Karnataka, India Navneet Singh 1 & Jagbir Singh 2 Zoological Survey of India, GPRC, Road No 11-D, Rajendernagar, Patna, Bihar 800016, India Department of Zoology and Environmental Studies, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab 147002, India Email: 1 nsgill007@gmail.com (corresponding author), 2 prjagbir2005@gmail.com

Abstract: In this manuscript, external male and female genitalic characters of Amerila eugenia (Fabricius) have been studied and illustrated for the first time. Besides this, a dichotomous key for the separation of all four Indian species of this genus has been provided. Keywords: Amerila Walker, Arctiidae, dichotomous key, eugenia (Fabricius), external genitalia, Lepidoptera.

Genus Amerila was proposed by Walker in 1855 for its type species astreus Drury from Bengal, India. It is a diverse old world tropical genus with distinctive facies such as shape of fore wing margin; small hind wings, with (in males) modified scales along the rather produced tornus; general colouration is white, pale pinkish-brown or dark brown with areas of pink on the abdomen and the legs; antennae with more (80) segments (Holloway 1988). Hampson Date of publication (online): 26 February 2012 Date of publication (print): 26 February 2012 ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print) Editor: P.C. Pathania Manuscript details: Ms # o2942 Received 08 September 2011 Final received 30 December 2011 Finally accepted 19 January 2012 Citation: Singh, N. & J. Singh (2012). Genitalic studies of Amerila eugenia (Fabricius) (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae) from Karnataka, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(2): 2398–2401. Copyright: © Navneet Singh & Jagbir Singh 2012. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non-profit purposes, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication. Acknowledgements: The authors are grateful to Dr. Honey Martin, Lepidoptera section, Natural History Museum (NHM), London for providing photographs of types of Amerila eugenia (Fabricius) and Amerila rhodopa Walker which helped in identification. We are thankful to Dr. K.Venkataraman, Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata for providing necessary facilities. Dr. V.V. Dubatolov of Siberian Zoological Museum, Novosibirsk, Russia also gave his kind suggestions in identification of A. eugenia (Fabricius) and A. rhodopa Walker. The financial help provided by Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, New Delhi in the form of a major research project entitled ‘‘Taxonomic revision of Indian Arctiidae (Lepidoptera)’’ is duly acknowledged. OPEN ACCESS | FREE DOWNLOAD

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(1894) synonymised the genus Amerila Walker under Pelochyta Hübner and later on Hampson (1901) treated Amerila under Rhodogastria Hübner. Strand (1919) catalogued five species under Rhodogastria Hübner, i.e., astreus (Drury), eugenia (Fabricius), omissa Rothschild, rhodopa (Walker) and phaedra (Weymer) from India. However, Hampson (1920) restricted R. phaedra (Weymer) to East Africa, thus, leaving four Indian species under the genus Rhodogastria. Watson et al. (1980) accepted Amerila Walker as a valid generic name and mentioned that the correct type species of Rhodogastria Hübner & Amerila Walker are Phalaena amasis Cramer, and Sphinx astreus Drury, respectively. Whereas, Arora & Chaudhary (1982) again referred to Strand (1919) and reassigned astreus Drury to the genus Rhodogastria along with the confirmation of five Indian species under it. On the other hand, Koda (1987) described the male and female genitalic attributes of astreus (Drury) and studied it under the genus Amerila. The same nomenclature was followed by Holloway (1988). Häuser & Boppré (1997) restricted the species A. phaedra Weymer to East and South Africa. Singh & Singh (1999) added another species i.e. Amerila arthusbertrandi (Guérin-Méneville) to the Indian fauna, once again, raising the number of species under Amerila to five. But this species seems to be a wrong identification of Amerila omissa (Rothschild). Recently Dubatolov (2010)reassigned the previously known four

Abbreviations: 1A - First anal vein; 2A - Second anal vein; AED - Aedeagus; ANT.APO - Anterior apophyses; CO - Costa; CRNCornuti; CRP.BU - Corpus bursae; CU - Cucullus; CU1 - First cubital vein; CU2 - Second cubital vein; DU.BU - Ductus bursae; DU.EJ- Ductus ejaculatorius; HRP - Harpe; JX - Juxta; M1 - First median vein; M2 - Second median vein; M3 - Third median vein; PAP.A - Papilla Analis; PO.APO - Posterior apophyses; R1 - First radial vein; R2 - Second radial vein; R3 - Third radial vein; R4 Fourth radial vein; R5 - Fifth radial vein; RS - Radial Sector; SA Saccus; SC - Subcosta; SC+R1 - Stalk of SC + R1; SIG - Signum; SL - Sacculus; TG - Tegumen; UN - Uncus; VES - Vesica; VIN - Vinculum; VLA - Valvula; VLV - Valva.

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Genitalic studies of Amerila eugenia

species to the Indian Amerila. In the present work, the external male and female genitalia of A. eugenia (Fabricius) has been studied and illustrated for the first time. In addition to this, the other three Indian species of the genus Amerila were also interpreted in respect to their external morphological characters, which revealed that A. astreus (Drury) and A. omissa (Rothschild) are easily separable, but A. eugenia (Fabricius) and A. rhodopa Walker are morphologically similar, which can only be separated by the slightly different colour of their abdomen. From the literature (Rothschild 1914; Hampson 1920) it is also clear that the area of distribution of both these species is almost similar. Therefore, the examination of external male and female genitalia of A. rhodopa Walker is of utmost importance for further review of both these species. A dichotomous key to all the four Indian species of the genus Amerila Walker has also been formulated and included. Materials and Methods The members of the genus Amerila Walker were exclusively collected with the help of light traps (equipped with mercury bulb) at night. The collected moths were euthanized in glass jars, fumigated with ethyl acetate vapours. The dead specimens were preserved in ento boxes, fumigated with napethalene balls. Identification was done with the help of literature and confirmed by comparison with the photographs of types received from the Natural History Museum (NHM), London. For the preparation of permanent slides of fore and hind wings, the method proposed by Common (1970) and advocated by Zimmerman (1978) was followed. For the study of external male and female genitalia, the methodology given by Robinson (1976) was followed. The diagrams of genitalia were drawn with the help of a graph eye piece fitted in a stereo zoom binocular on graph paper and was photographed with the help of a Leica stereo-microscope equipped digital camera. The terminology given by Klots (1970) has been followed in the present study for nomenclature purposes. Observations Genus Amerila Walker Walker 1855, List Spec. Lep. Ins. Colln. Br. Mus. 3: 725. Type species: Sphinx astreus Drury, 1773, by subsequent designation by Hampson, 1900a; Ann. S.

N. Singh & J. Singh

Afr. Mus. 2: 60 (cited as astreas). Distribution: India, Old world tropics, Africa and Australia (Hampson 1894; Holloway 1988). Diagnosis: Labial palpi upturned; antennae simple in both sexes with more segments (80); forewing with vein R3 & R4 anastomoses to form short areole, R2 & R5 from areole, M2 & M3 from lower angle of cell; hindwing small with vein Rs & M1 originating from upper angle of cell, Cu1 before lower angle of cell; hind tibia with two pair of spurs; male genitalia with uncus short, vinculum u-shaped, saccus present, valve rounded, harpe hook/plough-like, outer wall of valve bears a retractile scent lobe, juxta divided into a dorsal plate and a ventral pocket, aedeagus short and broad with tubular vesica bearing two cornuti, ductus ejaculatorius entering sub apically; female genitalia with corpus bursae membranous, signa present, basal half of ductus bursae sclerotized and second half membranous. Amerila eugenia (Fabricius) (Image 1) Noctua eugenia Fabricius, 1794, Ent. Syst. 3(2): 19–20. Rhodogastria fraterna Moore, 1884, Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1884: 356. Rhodogastria astreas (Drury), Hampson, 1901, Cat. Lep. Het., 3: 504. Rhodogastria eugenia (Fabricius), Rothschild, 1914, The Macrolepidoptera of the World, 10: 236–263. Rhodogastria eugenia (Fabricius), Hampson, 1920, Cat. Lep. Het., 2: 529. Amerila eugenia (Fabricius), Dubatolove, 2010, Neue Ent. Nach., 65: 1–106 Material examined: Two males, 14.x.03, Ganeshgudi, Karnataka, 480m; one female, 2.x.05, Malshej Ghat, Karnataka, 690m. ex. light trap, coll. Navneet Singh and J.S. Kirti. Adult description: Male 52mm; female 52mm. Vertex and frons whitish, spotted with black. Antennae simple in both sexes, scape light crimson, flagella brown. Labial palpi upturned, irrorated with crimson scale, extremity of each segment with a black band, underside white. Collar and tegula white with black spots. Thorax with white and black spots. Abdomen crimson, proximal half of first segment white, lateral and sub lateral series of black spots, underside white. Forewing with ground colour whitish opaque, two

Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | February 2012 | 4(2): 2398–2401

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Genitalic studies of Amerila eugenia

N. Singh & J. Singh

X1.0

SC+R1

R3 R4 R5 M1

M2 M3

A 2mm

CU1 CU2

B 1A 2mm

PAP.A

CRN VLV

Rs M1 M2 M3 CU1 CU2

VES

ANT.APO PO.APO

1mm

DU.BU

AED CRP.BU SIG

C 1mm

VIN

DU.EJ 1mm

VLA HRP

F CU

CO 1mm

J H

Image 1. Amerila eugenia (Fabricius). A - Forewing; B - Hindwing; C & H - Male genitalia; D - Aedeagus; E - Valva (right); F - Uncus with Tegumen (lateral view); G & I - Female genitalia; J- from left to right: fore leg, mid leg & hind leg.

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Genitalic studies of Amerila eugenia

N. Singh & J. Singh

Key to the Indian species of the genus Amerila Walker 1. -

Forewing with a prominent dark brown band at discocellulars ....................................................................... 2 Forewing without any brown band at discocellulars ....................................................................................... 3

2. -

Abdomen crimson, aedeagus with vesica shorter, juxta simple ............................................... astreus (Drury) Abdomen white, apical and sub apical segments crimson, base with few crimson and pale rufous scales, aedeagus with vesica relatively much longer, juxta complex, partly divided into two ........................... ............................................................................................................................................ omissa (Rothschild)

3. -

Abdomen carmine, aedeagus with vesica membranous, with two spines ........................... eugenia (Fabricius) Abdomen red (genitalia not studied so far) ............................................................................. rhodopa Walker

basal black spots, costal area suffused with brown, an apical brown patch - broad at vein M2 and narrowing towards vein CU2, inner area tinged with brown. Veins as in genus. Hind wing with ground colour brownishwhite, costal area suffused with brown scales. Veins as in genus. Legs: Coxae and femora crimson on upper side, under side fringed with white, hind tibia and tarsi covered with white scales, mid tibia with single pair and hind tibia with two pair of spurs. Male genitalia: Uncus short and broad, gradually narrowing towards tip, setosed with short setae, sclerotized, tip pointed; acrotergite absent; tegumen longer than uncus, broad v-shaped; vinculum as long as tegumen, u-shaped, uniformly sclerotized; saccus weakly developed. Valve rounded with costa narrow and linear, weakly sclerotized; sacculus well differentiated; harpe well sclerotized, plough like; cucullus and valvula not differentiated; tip of valvae rounded, laden with small setae; outer wall of valvae with well developed retractile scent glands. Transtilla weakly sclerotized; aedeagus short and broad at base, slightly narrowing towards tip; vesica membranous, with two well sclerotized spines; ductus ejaculatorius entering subapically. Female genitalia: Corpus bursae membranous, two signa present; ductus bursae short and broad, first half sclerotized; anterior apophyses shorter than posterior apophyses; papilla analis setosed with well defined setae. Distribution: Punjab, central and southern India (Hampson 1920; Dubatolov 2010), Ganeshgudi, Malshej Ghat, Karnataka (present study).

References Arora, G.S. & M. Chaudhary (1982). On the Lepidopterous fauna of Arunachal Pradesh and adjoining areas of Assam in North-East India. Family Arctiidae. Zoological Survey of India, Technical Monograph 6: 1–63.

Common, I.F.B. (1970). Lepidoptera (Moths and Butterflies),in the Insect of Australia. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 866. Dubatolov, V.V. (2010). Tiger moths of Eurasia (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae). Neue Entomologische Nachrichten 65: 1–106. Hampson, G.F. (1894). Fauna of British India, Moths, including Ceylon and Burma—2. Taylor and Francis Ltd., London, 609pp. Hampson, G.F. (1901). Catalogue of the Arctiidae and Agaristidae in the collection of the British Museum—3. Taylor and Francis Ltd., London, 690pp. Hampson, G.F. (1920). Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British museum London. Supplement—2. Taylor and Francis Ltd., London, 23+916pp. Häuser, C.L. & M. Boppré (1997). A revision of the afro tropical taxa of the genus Amerila Walker (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae). Systematic Entomology 22: 1–44. Holloway, J.D. (1988). Moths of Borneo. Part—6. Kaulalampur Southden, Malaysia, 101pp. Klots, A.B. (1970). Lepidoptera, pp. 115–130. In: Tuxen, S.L. (ed.). Taxonomists’s Glossary of Genitalia in Insects. Munksgaard, Copenhagen. Koda, N. (1987). A generic classification of the subfamily Arctiinae of palearctic and oriental regions based on male and female genitalia (Lepidoptera : Arctiidae) Part—I. Tyo to ga 38(3): 153—237. Singh, J. & A. Singh (1999). Studies on the male genitalia of two species of the genus Amerila Walker (Arctiinae: Arctiidae: Lepidoptera). Geobios news report 18(1): 5–8 Robinson, G.S. (1976). The preparation of slides of Lepidoptera genitalia with special reference to Microlepidoptera. Entomologist’s Gazetted 27: 127-132. Rothschild, L.W. (1914). Arctiidae: Arctiinae. In: Seitz, A. Die Gross – Schmetterlinge der. Erde. The Macrolepidoptera of the World 10: 236–263. Strand, E. (1919). Arctiidae: Arctiinae. Lepidopterorum Catalogus 22: 1–416. Walker, F. (1855). List of the specimens of Lepidopterous insects in the collection of the British Museum. Catalogue Lepidoptera Heterocera 3: 583–762. Watson, A., D.S. Fletcher & I.W.B. Nye (1980). The Generic Names of Moths of The World—2 (Noctuoidea). Trustees of Natural History Museum, London, 228pp. Zimmerman, E.C. (1978). Microlepidoptera Insects of Hawaii 9. University Press of Hawaii, Honolulu, 1903pp.

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JoTT Short Communication

4(2): 2402–2405

Range extension of Conta pectinata Ng, 2005 (Teleostei: Sisoridae) in upper Brahmaputra River drainage in Arunachal Pradesh, India Lakpa Tamang 1 & Shivaji Chaudhry 2 G.B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, North East Unit, Vivek Vihar, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh 791113, India Email: 1 lakpatamang@rediffmail.com, 2 shivaji.chaudhry@gmail.com (corresponding author)

1,2

Abstract: This paper extends the range of distribution of Conta pectinata in Sille River, Brahmaputra drainage, East Siang District of Arunachal Pradesh and gives some information on its habitat and threats, which are still to be documented properly. Some brief additional characters are also added here. Our examination revealed that some morphological variations exists from originally described C. pectinata by having deep body at anus (10.3–11.9 vs. 7.5–9.4% SL); short dorsal-spine (length 15.7–20.8 vs. 20.9– 24.0% SL), less number of serrae on anterior margin of dorsalspine along the entire length (15–18 vs. 18–20) etc. The major threats identified are the frequent use of electrocution and the chemicals in the river during the winter season . Keywords: Aquatic vegetation, Conta pectinata, electrocution, pectoral spine, range extension, Sille River, threats.

The catfish genus Conta belongs to the family Sisoridae and was first erected by Hora (1950), previously considered as monotypic. Conta is native to India and little information is known to science, so far merely two species, namely, Conta conta and C.

Date of publication (online): 26 February 2012 Date of publication (print): 26 February 2012 ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print) Editor: W. Vishwanath Manuscript details: Ms # o2933 Received 01 September 2011 Final received 02 January 2012 Finally accepted 13 January 2012 Citation: Tamang, L. & S. Chaudhry (2012). Range extension of Conta pectinata Ng, 2005 (Teleostei: Sisoridae) in upper Brahmaputra River drainage in Arunachal Pradesh, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(2): 2402–2405. Copyright: © Lakpa Tamang & Shivaji Chaudhry 2012. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non-profit purposes, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication. Acknowledgements: We extend our gratitude to Dr. L.M.S. Palni, Director, Kosi-Katarmal, Almora, Uttarakhand and Dr. P.K. Samal, Scientist-in-charge, North East Unit, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, G.B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development (GBPIHED) for facilities provided for this piece of research. Also thanks to Dr. Dhrupad Choudhury, Programme Coordinator (ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal) for inspiration and encouragement.

pectinata are known. C. pectinata was described from the Brahmaputra River drainage at Dibrugarh, Assam (Ng 2005a) and till date has not been reported from any other part of the Indian region except Meghalaya (Vishwanath et al. 2007). Ng (2009) remarked that there is no information available on the species habitat, ecology, distribution and population trends. This paper reports range extension of C. pectinata in Sille River, upper Brahmaputra River drainage in East Siang District of Arunachal Pradesh and gives a brief description of the species and information on habitat and potential threats. Materials and Methods Sampling was carried out using a cast net with diameter 2.5m and mesh size 7sq.mm during 13–17 October 2010. Specimens were preserved in 10% formalin and identified following Ng (2005a). Measurements were made point to point with digital calipers (Mitutoyo Corporation, Japan) to the nearest 0.1mm and expressed as a percentage of standard length (SL), head length (HL) or length of pelvic to anal-fin origin (PA-L). Vent to anal-fin origin is abbreviated as (VA-L). Counts and measurements were made on the left side of the specimens. Measurements follow Ng & Ng (1995) and Ng & Dodson (1999); measurements for pelvic to anal-fin origins and vent to anal-fin origins follow Nebeshwar et al. (2009). The number in parentheses after a specific fin rays count indicates the number of specimens examined. The length of adhesive apparatus was measured from its anterior margin to posterior margin. Data on Conta pectinata were obtained from the literature (Ng 2005a). The specimens are deposited in the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh.

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Conta pectinata Ng, 2005 (Image 1) Conta pectinata Ng, 2005: 16(1): 23–28. Type locality: Brahmaputra River, Dibrugarh, Assam, India. Holotype: ZRC 49672, 46.4 mm SL. Paratypes: UMMZ 234675, 1, 47.9 mm SL; ZRC 49673, 2, 44.249.1 mm SL. Material examined Four specimens, 14–17.x.2010, 42.5–46.4 mm SL, Sille River, about 1km upstream from RCC bridge over Sille River, about 10 km from Ruksin or about 26 km before Pasighat, 27052’626”N & 95018’300”E; altitude: 127m; weight: 0.79–0.92 gm, coll. Lakpa Tamang (ZSI/V/APFS/P-523). Description Body slender, sub-cylindrical anterior, abdomen moderately flat. Head small, V-shaped when viewed dorsally, wider than deep. Post-temporo-supracleithrum process gently turned outwards towards the tip. The snout length is equal to the base length of the occipital

L. Tamang & S. Chaudhry

process and also equals the length of the supraoccipital spine. The length of the thoracic adhesive apparatus is almost equidistant between the pectoral and pelvic fin origins and also from the snout tip to the middle of the supraoccipital spine (Image 2). The position of the vent nearer the anal-fin origin (35.5–44.9 % PA-L). The body is deepest at dorsal-fin origin, deeper than wide; body depth at anus 10.3–11.9% SL, deeper than wide; length of dorsal-spine (15.7–20.8% SL); dorsal to adipose distance 30.4–32.7% SL and length of nasal barbel 8.1–11.0% HL. Dorsal-fin with 5–6 rays, anterior margin of dorsalspine consists of 15–18 strong serrae along entire length, and posterior margin with 9–15 serrae, both the serrations pointing towards base. Pectoral-fin with 5(1), 6 (3) rays, anterior margin of pectoral-spine with 26–32 serrae anteriorly-directed and posterior margin with 13–16 serrae directed towards base. Pelvic-fin with i, five rays and length 16.7–18.5% SL. Anal-fin with ii, 7(3) ii, 8(1) rays. Caudal-fin consists of i,5,6,i (2), i,6,5,i (1), i,6,6,i (1) principal rays. Ecological notes Specimens of Conta pectinata were collected from shallow (10–30 cm) and moderately clear water with pebbles, cobbles of variable colours and sand particles, at an altitude of 127m. Other species associated were: Aborichthys elongatus, Acanthocobitis botia, Amblyceps mangois, Barilius barna, B. bendelisis, Balitora brucei, Botia rostrata, Chanda nama, Crossocheilus latius, Garra annandalei, G. gotyla, Neolissochilus hexagonolepis, Pseudolaguvia shawi, Psilorhynchus balitora, Puntius ticto, Schistura savona and Tor tor.

Image 1. Dorsal, lateral and ventral view of Conta pectinata, 42.5mm SL.

Image 2. Thoracic Adhesive apparatus of Conta pectinata, length: 13.3mm.

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Threats: During the winter season (October– January), some people employ modern hazardous techniques of fishing like electrocution, use of bleach and lime powder in diverted streams, in the lower reaches nearby Sille Village where electricity is available. Further, electrocution is also done using a mini generator or inverter towards upstream and downstream areas. As per the view of the fishermen, the capture rate of this fish is less in natural conditions in comparison to other fishes. The catch rate of fish within 3–4 hours of fishing using traditional methods is about 15–20 individuals and sometimes even less. Distribution Known from Sille River, Sille Village, East Siang District, Arunachal Pradesh. The Sille River is one of the tributaries of Siang River, which joins the Brahmaputra River in Assam. The species was originally described from Brahmaputra River, Dibrugarh, Assam and also reported from Meghalaya (Fig. 1). Although Vishwanath et al. (2007) included Meghalaya in the distribution but the exact locality was not mentioned. Probable locality is given in the map, i.e., from Umtrao River that flows adjacent to the Guwahati–Shillong road (W. Vishwanath pers. comm.). Discussion According to Ng (2005a), Conta pectinata differs from C. conta in having anteriorly-directed (vs. distally-directed) serrations on the anterior margin of the pectoral spine, and having a longer (24.6–25.6% SL vs. 21.9–23.4) and more slender (2.6–2.8% SL vs. 3.9–4.4) caudal peduncle. The specimens of Conta collected from Sille River of Arunachal Pradesh agree well with the description of C. pectinata sensu stricto based on the following characters: (i) Serrae on the anterior margin of the pectoral spine directedanteriorly, (ii) in having long (23.0–25.8% SL) and more narrow (2.7–3.0% SL) caudal peduncle. However, further examination revealed that some morphological variations exist on the following: deep body at anus 10.3–11.9 (vs. 7.5–9.4% SL); short dorsal-spine (length 15.7–20.8 vs. 20.9–24.0% SL); long pelvic-fin (length 16.7–18.5 vs. 14.2–16.4% SL); larger post adipose distance (distance 30.4–32.7 vs. 21.8–25.0% SL) and a short nasal barbel (length 8.1–11.0 vs. 17.0–23.8% HL). Further, slight variations exists in the following: 2404

less number of serrae on anterior margin of dorsalspine along the entire length (15–18 vs. 18–20); a posttemporo-supracleithrum process moderately deflected from the base of the supraoccipital spine vs. more deflected (compare dorsal view in Image 1 here and Fig. 1 in Ng 2005a). We assume these variations might be due to different ambient microclimatic conditions, habitat and water quality that is beyond the scope of this study. The long thoracic adhesive apparatus in this species appears to be an adaptation to life in fast flowing waters upstream from the Brahmaputra River similar to other erethistids and sisorids (Hora 1930; de Pinna 1996). According to Ng (2005b; pers. obs.), the individuals of Hara jerdoni (Erethistidae) seem to remain at rest frequently supported by fin spines partially or fully erect amongst submerged vegetation. We also assume that the serrated dorsal and pectoral spine may help the fish to get entangled in aquatic vegetation, as some individuals were captured in a similar type of microhabitat. The fish were generally found more towards river banks where water pressure is lower, dwelling under congested gaps of small stones or pebbles and also within the aquatic vegetation. The fish also dwell in small drainages with pebbly beds and aquatic grasses and feed on newly developed algae and minute debris particles on the substratum. The fish make clicking sounds when taken out from the water body (as per the information given by local fishermen). The hazardous techniques used are more dangerous than traditional methods as the fish remain hidden under the gaps of the substratum which are severely affected by electrocution and chemicals. This nonconventional method of fishing, enable the fishermen to collect a large number of fishes in a short time, but it poses a serious threat to this fish and to other bottom dwelling aquatic fauna (Chaudhry & Tamang 2007). Traditionally, village fisher women (Mishing community) also collect this fish with a handmade circular netted disc (made up of cane and bamboo). This operation is done by removing the small stones and pebbles near river banks and also by dragging it through banks of small drainages consisting of aquatic vegetation.

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b Di

an Si

China

g R

hal

hit

Arunac

BHUTAN

aputra

Brahm

Dibrugarh

nagaland

SIKKIM

h Prades Pasighat

River Assam

Myanmar

MEGHALAYA

Manipur

MIzoram

IPU

BANGLADESH

100

200

300 km

Figure 1. Map of northeastern India showing the distribution of Conta pectinata indicated by star (present collection); circle (Ng 2005) and square (Vishwanath et al. 2007).

References Chaudhry, S. & L. Tamang (2007). Need to adopt traditional fishing gear in Senkhi, Current Science 93 (12): 1647– 1648. de Pinna, M.C.C. (1996). A phylogenetic analysis of the Asian catfish families Sisoridae, Akysidae, and Amblycipitidae, with a hypothesis on the relationships of the neotropical Aspredinidae (Teleostei, Ostariophysi). Fieldiana: Zoology (New Series) 84: 1–83. Hora, S.L. (1930). Ecology, bionomics and evolution of the torrential fauna, with special reference to the organs of attachment. Philosophical Transactions of the royal Society of London Series B 218: 171–282. Hora, S.L. (1950). Siluroid fishes of India, Burma and Ceylon. XIII. Fishes of the genera Erethistes Muller and Troschel, Hara Blyth and of two new allied genera. Records of Indian Museum 47: 183–202. Nebeshwar, K., W. Vishwanath & D.N. Das (2009). Garra arupi, a new cyprinid fish species (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae) from upper Brahmaputra basin in Arunachal

Pradesh, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 1(4): 197–202. Ng, H.H. & J.J. Dodson (1999). Morphological and genetic descriptions of a new species of catfish, Hemibagrus chrysops, from Sarawak, east Malayasia, with an assessment of phylogenetic relationships (Teleostei: Bagridae). The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 47(1): 45–47. Ng, H.H. & K.L. Ng (1995). Hemibagrus gracilis, a new species of large Riverine Catfish (Teleostei: Bagaridae) from peninsular Malayasia. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 43(1): 133–142. Ng, H.H. (2005a). Conta pectinata, a new erethistid Catfish (Teleostei: Erethistidae) from northeast India. Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters 16(1): 23–28. Ng, H.H. (2005b). Two new species of Pseudolaguvia (Teleostei: Erethistidae) from Bangladesh. Zootaxa 1044: 35–47. Ng, H.H. (2009). Conta pectinata. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.1. <www. iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 26 August 2011. Vishwanath, W., W.S. Lakra & U.K. Sarkar (2007). Fishes of North East India. National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources, Lucknow, 264pp.

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JoTT Note

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Extended distribution of Smithsonia straminea C.J. Saldanha, an endemic orchid in Maharashtra, India Mandar N. Datar 1 & Vinaya S. Ghate 2 Botany Group, Agharkar Research Institute, Pune, Maharashtra 411004, India Email: 1 datarmandar@gmail.com (corresponding author), 2 vsghate@yahoo.com

1,2

During one of the routine floristic surveys of sacred groves of Dapoli Taluka, Ratnagiri District in the Konkan region of Maharashtra, a population of an interesting epiphytic orchid was observed near Kudavale sacred grove. After critical studies of the collected sample and review of literature (Pande et al. 2010; Rao & Sridhar 2007) this orchid was identified as Smithsonia straminea C.J. Saldanha. Scrutiny of available floristic literature and works on orchids (Mistry 1986; Lakshminarasimhan 1996; Almeida 2009) also revealed that so far this taxon is known only from Karnataka and Kerala. Therefore, this is the first report of occurrence of the taxa in Maharashtra, indicating its extended distribution. Saldanha (1976) described Smithsonia straminea based on collections from Hassan District, Karnataka. Joseph & Vajravelu (1979) reported its extended distribution in Kerala. Kumar et al. (2000) added a few more locations in Kerala for its occurrence. The status of

Date of publication (online): 26 February 2012 Date of publication (print): 26 February 2012 ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print) Editor: Pankaj Kumar Manuscript details: Ms # o2925 Received 25 August 2011 Final received 26 November 2011 Finally accepted 11 January 2012 Citation: Datar, M.N. & V.S. Ghate (2012). Extended distribution of Smithsonia straminea C.J. Saldanha, an endemic orchid in Maharashtra, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(2): 2406–2408. Copyright: © Mandar N. Datar & Vinaya S. Ghate 2012. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non-profit purposes, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication. Acknowledgements: The authors are thankful to the Director, Agharkar Research Institute, Pune for providing necessary facilities. OPEN ACCESS | FREE DOWNLOAD

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this Western Ghats endemic orchid has been evaluated as Endangered (EN) following the IUCN criteria 2000 (Kumar et al. 2000). As this paper reports its extended distribution to the north, this assessment needs to be re-evaluated. Since this is the first report of its occurrence in Maharashtra, a brief description of the species, ecological notes and field photographs (Image 1) are provided below to facilitate easy identification. The voucher specimens are deposited in Agharkar Herbarium (AHMA) of the Agharkar Research Institute, Pune. Smithsonia straminea C.J. Saldanha, J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 71: 73. 1974; Saldanha in Saldanha & Nicolson, Fl. Hassan Dist. 850. 1976. Loxoma straminea (Saldanha) U.C. Pradhan, Indian Orchids 2: 718.1979; Karthikeyan, et al. Florae Indicae Enumeratio Monocotyledonae 150. 1989. (Image 1). Epiphytic herbs; Roots 3–6, arising from the base of the stem, up to 10cm long. Stem very short. Leaves 2–4, distichous, coriaceous, elliptic-oblong and slightly channeled, bilobed or entire at apex. Racemes 1–2, shorter than the leaves, 4–18 flowered. Flowers sessile, about 0.5cm across; sepals straw colored with red spots, obovate, 1.5x3.0 mm; petals slightly smaller and narrower, yellow with red spots, in some individuals red spots on sepals and petals totally absent; lip immovable, spurred, 3-lobed; spur pink, sub-conical or bacciform, 3–4 mm long; lateral lobes white, erect, acute; mid-lobe white, transverse, arching downwards, entire, with a small knob near the junction with the spur; anther cap yellowish; pollinia 2, deeply cleft; stipe single, ending in viscidium. Rostellum 2-lobed. Capsule elliptic-obovate, ribbed, about 0.5x1.5 cm. Locality and ecological observations: The species was recorded in a mango plantation near the Kudavale Sacred Grove in Kudavale Village along the Mandangad-Dapoli Road in Dapoli Taluka, Ratnagiri District of Maharashtra at 17051’44.77’’N & 73014’40.48’’E, elevation of 840m. At Kudavale, the species was seen growing as epiphytes on lower branches of the trunks of Mangifera indica L. ‘Alphonso’ with other epiphytic orchid associates like Vanda testacea (Lindl.) Rchb. f., Cottonia peduncularis (Lindl.) Rchb. f. and the fern Pyrrosia lanceolata (L.) Farw. The trees growing on the outskirts of

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Distribution of Smithsonia straminea

M.N. Datar & V.S. Ghate a

Image 1. Smithsonia straminea C.J. Saldanha a - Habitat of the orchid; b - habit; c - sepals and petals without red spot: variation; d - flower close-up; e - pollinarium; f - capsule

the mango orchard had predominant growths of orchids as compared to the trees inside the orchard. The maximum and luxuriant growth of these three species of orchids was noted on mango trees near the stream. Approximately 110 individuals of Smithsonia straminea were observed as epiphytic on 12 mango trees out of the total 60 trees growing in the orchard. The efforts to locate the species in nearby mango orchards, forest areas and sacred groves were without

success. Pande et al. (2010) had earlier observed the species growing epiphytic on Terminalia alata Heyne ex Roth. in Belgaum District of Karnataka. Flowering Phenology: Mayâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;June. Exsiccata: Kudavale, 18.v.2011, Datar 25345 & 25346 (AHMA) (Appendix 1 & 2).

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References Almeida, M.R. (2009). Flora of Maharashtra—Vol. Va. Blatter Herbarium, Mumbai, 245pp. Joseph, V. & E. Vajravelu (1979). First Report of Oberonia brachyphylla Blatt. & McCann and Smithsonia straminea Saldanha (Orchidaceae) in Kerala. Bulletin of Botanical Survey of India 20(1–4): 169. Kumar, C.S., B.V. Shetty, D. Bennet & S. Molur (2000). Report of the Conservation Assessment and Management Plan Workshop on Endemic Orchids of the Western Ghats. Zoo Outreach, Organization & CBSG South Asia, Coimbatore, India, 139pp. Lakshminarasimhan, P. (1996). Orchidaceae, pp. 8–64. In: Sharma, B.D., S. Karthikeyan, & N. P. Singh (eds.). Flora

of Maharashtra State, . Botanical Survey of India, Calcutta, 794pp. Mistry, M.K. (1986). Flora of Ratnagiri District. PhD Thesis submitted to Mumbai University, India. (Unpublished). Pande, S., N. Sant, V. Vishwasrao & M.N. Datar (2010). Wild Orchids of Northern Western Ghats. Tata Power and Ela Foundation, India, 238pp. Rao, T.A. & S. Sridhar (2007). Wild Orchids in Karnataka, A Pictorial Compendium. Institute of Natural Resource conservation, Education, Research and Training, Bangalore, 103pp. Saldanha, C. J. (1976). Orchidaceae. In: Saldanha, C.J. & H. Nicolson (eds). Flora of Hassan District, Karnataka, India. Amerind Pubication Co., New Delhi, 850pp.

Appendix 1 & 2. Herbarium sheets

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Dr. Gowri Mallapur, Mamallapuram, India Dr. George Mathew, Peechi, India Prof. Richard Kiprono Mibey, Eldoret, Kenya Dr. Lionel Monod, Genève, Switzerland Dr. Shomen Mukherjee, Jamshedpur, India Dr. P.O. Nameer, Thrissur, India Dr. D. Narasimhan, Chennai, India Dr. T.C. Narendran, Kozhikode, India Stephen D. Nash, Stony Brook, USA Dr. K.S. Negi, Nainital, India Dr. K.A.I. Nekaris, Oxford, UK Dr. Heok Hee Ng, Singapore Dr. Boris P. Nikolov, Sofia, Bulgaria Prof. Annemarie Ohler, Paris, France Dr. Shinsuki Okawara, Kanazawa, Japan Dr. Albert Orr, Nathan, Australia Dr. Geeta S. Padate, Vadodara, India Dr. Larry M. Page, Gainesville, USA Dr. Prakash Chand Pathania, Ludhiana, India Dr. Malcolm Pearch, Kent, UK Dr. Richard S. Peigler, San Antonio, USA Dr. Rohan Pethiyagoda, Sydney, Australia Mr. J. Praveen, Bengaluru, India Dr. Robert Michael Pyle, Washington, USA Dr. Muhammad Ather Rafi, Islamabad, Pakistan Dr. H. Raghuram, Bengaluru, India Dr. Dwi Listyo Rahayu, Pemenang, Indonesia Dr. Sekar Raju, Suzhou, China Dr. Vatsavaya S. Raju, Warangal, India Dr. V.V. Ramamurthy, New Delhi, India Dr (Mrs). R. Ramanibai, Chennai, India Dr. M.K. Vasudeva Rao, Pune, India Dr. Robert Raven, Queensland, Australia Dr. K. Ravikumar, Bengaluru, India Dr. Luke Rendell, St. Andrews, UK Dr. Anjum N. Rizvi, Dehra Dun, India Dr. Leif Ryvarden, Oslo, Norway Prof. Michael Samways, Matieland, South Africa

Dr. Yves Samyn, Brussels, Belgium Dr. K.R. Sasidharan, Coimbatore, India Dr. Kumaran Sathasivam, India Dr. S. Sathyakumar, Dehradun, India Dr. M.M. Saxena, Bikaner, India Dr. Hendrik Segers, Vautierstraat, Belgium Dr. R. Siddappa Setty, Bengaluru, India Dr. Subodh Sharma, Towson, USA Prof. B.K. Sharma, Shillong, India Prof. K.K. Sharma, Jammu, India Dr. R.M. Sharma, Jabalpur, India Dr. Tan Koh Siang, Kent Ridge Road, Singapore Dr. Arun P. Singh, Jorhat, India Dr. Lala A.K. Singh, Bhubaneswar, India Prof. Willem H. De Smet, Wilrijk, Belgium Mr. Peter Smetacek, Nainital, India Dr. Humphrey Smith, Coventry, UK Dr. Hema Somanathan, Trivandrum, India Dr. C. Srinivasulu, Hyderabad, India Dr. Ulrike Streicher, Danang, Vietnam Dr. K.A. Subramanian, Pune, India Mr. K.S. Gopi Sundar, New Delhi, India Dr. P.M. Sureshan, Patna, India Dr. Karthikeyan Vasudevan, Dehradun, India Dr. R.K. Verma, Jabalpur, India Dr. W. Vishwanath, Manipur, India Dr. Gernot Vogel, Heidelberg, Germany Dr. Ted J. Wassenberg, Cleveland, Australia Dr. Stephen C. Weeks, Akron, USA Prof. Yehudah L. Werner, Jerusalem, Israel Mr. Nikhil Whitaker, Mamallapuram, India Dr. Hui Xiao, Chaoyang, China Dr. April Yoder, Little Rock, USA English Editors Mrs. Mira Bhojwani, Pune, India Dr. Fred Pluthero, Toronto, Canada

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Journal of Threatened Taxa ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print)

February 2012 | Vol. 4 | No. 2 | Pages 2333–2408 Date of Publication 26 February 2012 (online & print) Papers Population dynamics of an endemic and threatened Yellow Catfish Horabagrus brachysoma (Günther) from Periyar River, southern Western Ghats, India -- G. Prasad, Anvar Ali, M. Harikrishnan & Rajeev Raghavan, Pp. 2333–2342 Population variations in the Fungoid Frog Hylarana malabarica (Anura: Ranidae) from northern Western Ghats of India -- Anand Padhye, Anushree Jadhav, Manawa Diwekar & Neelesh Dahanukar, Pp. 2343–2352 Communications

Diversity of scorpion fauna of Saswad-Jejuri, Pune District, Maharashtra, western India -- Satish Pande, Deshbhushan Bastawade, Anand Padhye & Amit Pawashe, Pp. 2381–2389 Ecology and conservation of threatened plants in Tapkeshwari Hill ranges in the Kachchh Island, Gujarat, India -- P.N. Joshi, Ekta B. Joshi & B.K. Jain, Pp. 2390–2397 Short Communications Genitalic studies of Amerila eugenia (Fabricius) (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae) from Karnataka, India -- Navneet Singh & Jagbir Singh, Pp. 2398–2401

Garra kalpangi, a new cyprinid fish species (Pisces: Teleostei) from upper Brahmaputra basin in Arunachal Pradesh, India -- K. Nebeshwar, Kenjum Bagra & D.N. Das, Pp. 2353– 2362

Range extension of Conta pectinata Ng, 2005 (Teleostei: Sisoridae) in upper Brahmaputra River drainage in Arunachal Pradesh, India -- Lakpa Tamang & Shivaji Chaudhry, Pp. 2402–2405

Barilius profundus, a new cyprinid fish (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) from the Koladyne basin, India -- M. Dishma & W. Vishwanath, Pp. 2363–2369

Note

Population and prey of the Bengal Tiger Panthera tigris tigris (Linnaeus, 1758) (Carnivora: Felidae) in the Sundarbans, Bangladesh -- M. Monirul H. Khan, Pp. 2370–2380

Extended distribution of Smithsonia straminea C.J. Saldanha, an endemic orchid in Maharashtra, India -- Mandar N. Datar & Vinaya S. Ghate, Pp. 2406–2408