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Issue: Vol. 4341 No. 1: 30 Oct. 2017
Type: Article
Published: 2017-10-30
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4341.1.11
Page range: 124–134
Abstract views: 150
PDF downloaded: 1

Taxonomy of the zodiac loaches, Mesonoemacheilus triangularis, M. tambaraparniensis and M. periyarensis, endemic to the Western Ghats of India (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae)

School of Ocean Science and Technology, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS), Kochi, India
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, India
Department of Fisheries Resource Management, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS), Kochi, India Center for Excellence in Aquatic Resource Management and Conservation, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS), Kochi, India
Department of Fisheries Resource Management, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS), Kochi, India Center for Excellence in Aquatic Resource Management and Conservation, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS), Kochi, India
Pisces freshwater fish India nemacheilidae taxonomy Western Ghats

Abstract

The Nemacheilid loaches, Noemacheilus triangularis tambaraparniensis and Nemacheilus periyarensis have been widely considered to be synonyms of the zodiac loach, Mesonoemacheilus triangularis. An integrative taxonomic investigation based on topotypic material, involving molecular analysis of two mitochondrial genes (cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 and cytochrome b), multivariate morphometric analysis based on non-metric multidimensional scaling and non-parametric multivariate analysis of variance suggests that the three species are in fact distinct.

 

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