Mesonoemacheilus remadevii (Pisces : Balitoridae. Nemacheilinae) from Silent Valley National Park, Kerala

Abstract

Mesonoemacheilus remadevii, the freshwater balitoridae from the Kunthi river
in Silent Valley National Park, Kerala is described and this new species is compared
with M. triangularis for various morphological characters and pigmentation
pattern. This species is endemic to Kunthi river system. It differs from
other species under the genus mostly by colour pattern. Although information
on freshwater fishes of Kerala is available, information on balitoridae of the
state is rather incomplete. Recently, extensive collections from the river systems
in Kerala and the materials from other areas were compared with those
from Silent Valley. The characters of the specimens of Nemachiline from Kunthi
river in Silent Valley differs from the hitherto known Nemachelines and hence
a new name is proposed.