Rita Bleeker

Heok Hee Ng, 2004, Rita macracanthus, a new riverine catfish (Teleostei: Bagridae) from South Asia., Zootaxa 568, pp. 1-12 : 1-2

[[ Rita Bleeker ]]

Bagrid catfishes of the genus Rita Bleeker, 1854 are found in large rivers throughout the Indian subcontinent and Myanmar, and are capable of reaching sizes to 1500 mm TL (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991), although mature specimens of ca. 200-300 mm SL are more commonly encountered. The genus is diagnosed by the following synapomorphies (Mo, 1991): single pair of mandibular barbels, elongated Weberian apparatus firmly sutured to the basioccipital, and the sensory canal on the posttemporal enclosed within the bone. Rita and its sister taxon Nanobagrus Mo, 1991 are the sister group to all other members of Bagridae (Mo, 1991). The most recent review of Rita was provided by Ferraris (1999) in his redescription of R. sacerdotum Anderson, 1879 in which five valid species of Rita were recognized: R. rita(Hamilton, 1822) , R. gogra (Sykes, 1839) , R. kuturnee (Sykes, 1839) , R. chrysea Day, 1877 and R. sacerdotum Anderson, 1879 .

While comparing material identified as Rita rita from the Ganges and the Indus River drainages, differences were observed which suggested that the Indus River material belong to an undescribed species, which is described below.