Meristic and Morphometric Differentiation in Wild Populations of Barilius bendelisis (Hamilton 1807) from Kumaon Region of Uttarakhand, India

Abstract

In this study, differentiation in the morphological
traits of an important ornamental cyprinid fish,
Barilius bendelisis (Hamilton, 1807) was investigated.
A total of 134 individuals were collected from River
Gaula and Kosi between November 2013 to March
2014 in Uttarakhand region of Central Himalaya; 6
meristic and 24 morphometric characteristics were
recorded for each specimen. Principal component
analysis (PCA), discriminant function analysis (DFA)
and univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) were
used for differentiating the population. 16 significant
morphometric variables (p<0.001) were considered
for multivariate analysis. The principal component
(PC) for 16 morphometric variables generated
seven components accounting for 71.84% of the total
variation between the populations. First principal
component alone accounted for 35.24% of total
variation. The step wise discriminant analysis
retained one factor showing highest variation in
body depth, length of pectoral fin, dorsal fin base
length, sub orbital width, head length and snout
length. Using these variables, 82.7% of individuals
were retained into their original groups (82.7%
under a ‘leave-one-out’ procedure). This study
hypothesizes that the phenotypic variation between
these close populations could be attributed to
environmental and genetic factors