Nandus Valenciennes

Prosanta Chakrabarty, Ronald G. Oldfield & Heok Hee Ng, 2006, Nandus prolixus, a new species of leaf fish from northeastern Borneo (Teleostei: Perciformes: Nandidae)., Zootaxa 1328, pp. 51-61 : 51

[[ Nandus Valenciennes ]]

Fishes of the genus Nandus Valenciennes in Cuvier & Valenciennes, 1831 are mediumsized freshwater perciforms found in lentic and lotic habitats throughout southern and southeastern Asia and are easily distinguished by their compressed bodies, strongly protrusible jaws, and cryptic coloration. There are three species currently recognized: Nandus nandus (Hamilton, 1822) from southern Asia; Nandus nebulosus (Gray, 1835) from Sundaic southeastern Asia; and Nandus oxyrhynchus Ng, Vidthayanon & Ng, 1996 from mainland southeastern Asia.

The freshwater ichthyofauna of northeastern Borneo (largely consisting of the state of Sabah, Malaysia) has been recognized for some time as containing a significant number of endemic species (Inger & Chin, 1962). Here we test and find support for the hypothesis that the northeastern Borneo population of Nandus (previously identified as N. nebulosus ) belongs to a distinct species, and describe it below as Nandus prolixus , new species.