Department of Aquaculture and Conservation Research Group (CRG) researchers discover four new fish species

Department of Aquaculture and Conservation Research Group (CRG) researchers discover four new fish species 

Collaborative research between researchers at the Department of Aquaculture and the Conservation Research Group (CRG), St. Albert’s College,  and the British Museum of Natural History, London has led to the discovery of four new fish species to science. The four new  fish species  have been named,  Puntius madhusoodani,  Pristolepis rubripinnis, Dario urops  and Pangio ammophila. While P. madhusoodani was described from the Manimala River, P. rubripinnis was described from the Pampa and Chalakudy rivers. The  remaining two species, D. urops and P. ammophila were discovered from the Barapole stream in Coorg, and Kumaradhara stream in Subramanya, both in Karnataka State. The researchers involved were Benno Pereira, Rajeev Raghavan, K. Krishna Kumar, Anvar Ali, Fibin Baby and Siby Philip from St. Albert’s College and Ralf Britz from the Natural History Museum, London. 

The field work and research that led to these discoveries were carried out when Dr. Ralf Britz, Fish Research Leader of the Natural History Museum, London visited St. Albert’s College in early 2012.  

Pangio ammophila [Ralf Britz, Anvar Ali & Rajeev Raghavan 2012] 

Dario urops [Ralf Britz, Anvar Ali & Siby Philip 2012] 

Pristolepis rubripinnis [Ralf Britz, K. Krishna Kumar & Fibin Baby 2012] 

Puntius madhusoodani [K. Krishna Kumar, Benno Pereira & K.V. Radhakrishnan 2012] 

For more information and complete species descriptions please refer to: 

• Britz, R., Ali, A. & Raghavan, R. (2012). Pangio ammophila, a new species of eel-loach from Karnataka, southern India (Teleostei: Cypriniformes: Cobitidae).  Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 23: 45-50. 
• Britz, R., Ali, A. & Philip, S. (2012). Dario urops, a new species of badid fish from the Western Ghats, southern India (Teleostei: Percomorpha: Badidae). Zootaxa, 3348: 63-68. 
• Britz, R., Kumar, K. & Baby, F. (2012). Pristolepis rubripinnis, a new species of fish from southern India (Teleostei: Percomorpha: Pristolepididae). Zootaxa, 3345: 59-68. 
• Kumar, K., Benno Pereira, F.G. & Radhakrishnan, K.V. (2012): Puntius madhusoodani (Teleostei: Cyprinidae), a new species of barb from Manimala River, Kerala, South India. Biosystematica, 5 (2):