Pseudecheneis Blyth

Heok Hee Ng & David R. Edds, 2005, Two new species of Pseudecheneis, rheophilic catfishes (Teleostei: Sisoridae) from Nepal., Zootaxa 1047, pp. 1-19 : 1-2

[[ Pseudecheneis Blyth ]]

Rheophilic catfishes of the sisorid genus Pseudecheneis Blyth, 1860 occur in the headwaters of major river drainages throughout South and Southeast Asia. A member of the Glyptosterninae (a group distributed from the Caucasus to China), Pseudecheneis is easily diagnosed from other glyptosternines by a thoracic adhesive apparatus consisting of a series of transverse ridges (laminae) separated by grooves (sulcae) (de Pinna, 1996; Roberts, 1998), an adaptation to life in fast-flowing waters. Five species of Pseudecheneis are considered valid here, viz. P. sulcata (M’Clelland, 1842) , P. paviei Vaillant, 1904 , P. immaculata Chu, 1982 , P. sulcatoides Zhou & Chu, 1992 , and P. sympelvica Roberts, 1998 . Pseudecheneis sulcata is known from the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Salween and Irrawaddy River drainages, P. paviei from the Red River drainage, and P. immaculata , P. sulcatoides and P. sympelvica from the Mekong River drainage.

While comparing material identified as Pseudecheneis sulcata from the Ganges River drainage in Nepal (collected by DRE) and the Brahmaputra River drainage in India (collected by HHN) for a phylogenetic study of the Sisoridae, differences were observed that suggested the material from Nepal belongs to two undescribed species, which are described below.