Abstract
River loaches of the genus Schistura McClelland 1838 are small, elongated, benthic fishes of the family Nemacheilidae. Species in the genus are part of a subsistence fishery in several Southeast Asian countries due to their tasty flesh and relative abundance in suitable habitats. Fluvial environments with gravelly bottoms in tropical and subtropical regions can be co-inhabited by several species of nemacheilid loaches. Kottelat (1990) reported up to six different species coexisting in Indochinese streams in some instances. With about 200 valid taxa, Schistura is the most diverse genus within the family Nemacheilidae (Kottelat 2012). Species allocated within this genus share a moderately arched mouth, a medially notched lower lip, lack lateral labial pads, possess an air bladder without a secondary chamber, and reach a maximum standard length between 19 and 120 mm (Kottelat 1990; Ou et al. 2011).
References
Bohlen, J. & Slechtova, V. (2013) Two new species of Schistura from Myanmar (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae). Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 24, 21–30.
Chen, X.Y., Kong, D.P. & Yang, J.X. (2005) Schistura cryptofasciata, a new loach (Cypriniformes: Balitoridae) from Salween drainage in Yunnan, southwestern China. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 13 (Supplement), 27–32.
Chen, X.Y. & Neely, D.A. (2012) Schistura albirostris, a new nemacheiline loach (Teleostei: Balitoridae) from the Irrawaddy River drainage of Yunnan Province, China. Zootaxa, 3586, 222–227.
Chen, Y.Y. (Ed.) (1998) The fishes of the Hengduan Mountains region. Science Press, Beijing, 364 pp.
Endruweit, M. (2014) Schistura sexnubes, a new diminutive river loach from the upper Mekong basin, Yunnan Province, China (Teleostei: Cypriniformes: Nemacheilidae). Zoological Research, 35, 59–66.
Guo, H.D. (Ed.) (2013) Atlas of Remote Sensing for World Heritage: China. Springer, Berlin, 341 pp.
Kottelat, M. (1990) Indochinese nemacheilines. A revision of nemacheiline loaches (Pisces: Cypriniformes) of Thailand, Burma, Laos, Cambodia and southern Viet Nam. Pfeil, München, 262 pp.
Kottelat, M. (2000) Diagnoses of a new genus and 64 new species of fishes from Laos (Teleostei: Cyprinidae, Balitoridae, Bagridae, Syngnathidae, Chaudhuriidae and Tetraodontidae). Journal of South Asian Natural History, 5, 37–82.
Kottelat, M. (2012) Conspectus cobitidum: an inventory of the loaches of the world (Teleostei: Cypriniformes: Cobitoidei). The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 26 (Supplement), 1–199.
McClelland, J. 1838. Observations on six new species of Cyprinidae, with an outline of a new classification of the family. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 7, 941–948.
Ou, C., Montana, C.G., Winemiller, K.O. & Conway, K.W. (2011) Schistura diminuta, a new miniature loach from the Mekong River drainage of Cambodia (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae). Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 22, 193–200.
Saruwatari, T., Lopez, J.A. & Pietsch, T.W. (1997) Cyanine blue: a versatile and harmless stain for specimen observations. Copeia, 1997, 840–841.
https://doi.org/10.2307/1447302Smith, H.M. (1945) The fresh-water fishes of Siam, or Thailand. Bulletin of the United States National Museum, 188, 1–622.
https://doi.org/10.5479/si.03629236.188.1Zheng, L.P., Yang, J.X. & Chen, X.Y. (2012) Schistura prolixifasciata, a new species of loach (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae) from the Salween basin in Yunnan, China. Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 23, 63–68.
Zhou, W. & Kottelat, M. (2005) Schistura disparizona, a new species of loach from Salween drainage in Yunnan (Teleostei: Balitoridae). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 13 (Supplement), 17–20.
Zhu, S.Q. (1982) Five new species of fishes of the genus Nemachilus from Yunnan Province, China. Acta Zootaxonomica Sinica, 7, 104–111. [in Chinese]
Zhu, S.Q. (1989) The loaches of the subfamily Nemacheilinae in China. Jiangsu Science and Technology Publishing House, Nanjing, 150 pp. [in Chinese]