Metadata

Rakthamichthys indicus

(Eapen 1963) Britz, Dahanukar, Standing, Philip, Kumar, and Raghavan 2020

Rakthamichthys indicus
Redrawn by Rhian Kendall from Eapen (1963)
ORDERSUB-ORDERFAMILY
SynbranchiformesSynbranchoideiSynbranchidae

Synonyms

Monopterus indicus  Eapen 1963

Monopterus “indicus”  Eapen 1963 (by Rosen and Greenwood 1976)

Monopterus eapeni  Talwar 1991

Country

India

Types

Eapen based the description on a syntype series of five animals 130mm ‑ 162mm TL. The location of these specimens is unknown and they may be lost. Rosen and Greenwood (1976), in their thorough review and revision of synbranchiform fishes, did not examine this species because they could not obtain any specimens of it.

Distribution

Known only from the type‑locality, a 30 foot (10m) deep well at Kottayam, Kerala State, India (9o30’N, 76o30’E). This is also the type locality of Horaglanis krishnai and the two species coexist.

Habitat

The only published details are that the fish is found in dug-out wells. It may be an inhabitant of relatively small groundwater voids. Francy Kakkassery (pers. comm.) suggests that they live in the water table up to 10m below the surface and that they are only found where laterite is the predominant bed deposit.

Systematics

During their revision of the synbranchiform fishes Rosen and Greenwood (1976) examined specimens of Amphipnous indicus Silas and Dawson 1961. They were of the opinion that it was a member of the genus Monopterus. This created a case of homonymy with indicus Silas and Dawson predating indicus Eapen. Because they were unable to examine specimens of indicus Eapen, and determine its relationships within the Synbranchiformes, they decided against nomenclatural action and referred to the species as Monopterusindicus”. Subsequently Talwar (in Talwar and Jhingran 1992) provided a replacement name for M. “indicus” Eapen and called it M. eapeni. Britz et al. (2016) state that external similarity to West African Monopterus species suggests that M. eapeni might be a member of the ‘Amphipnous group’ within Monopterus.

Conservation Status

TLO [DD:3.1:2011]

(Raghavan, R. and Ali, A. 2011. Monopterus eapeni. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2011: http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2011-1.RLTS.T172399A6884086.en. Downloaded on 06 July 2017). DD (IUCN, 1996, 2000). Since this species is known only from its type locality it is VU D2 at least. Dahanukar, Raut and Bhat (2004) assess this species as Critically Endangered but with any explanation of how they arrive at this status.

Museum Holdings

None known.

Key References

Eapen, K. C. Journal Article 1963 A new species of Monopterus from South India
Rosen, D. E. and Greenwood, P. H. Journal Article 1976 A fourth neotropical species of synbranchid eel and the phylogeny and systematics of synbranchiform fishes
Mercy, T.V.A. Journal Article 1981 On the unique disposition of the valvula cerebelli in Horaglanis krishnai (Teleostei)
Mercy, T.V.A. Thesis 1981 Biology of the blind catfish of Kerala, Horaglanis krishnai Menon
Mercy, T.V.A. Journal Article 1982 On the presence of a forked barbel in the blind catfish Horaglanis krishnai Menon
Mercy, T.V.A., Padmanabhan, K.G. and Pillai, N.K. Journal Article 1982 Morphological studies on the oocytes of the blind catfish Horaglanis krishnai Menon
Mercy, T.V.A. Journal Article 1983 Studies on the air bladder of blind clariid Horaglanis krishnai Menon
Mercy, T.V A., Pillai, N.K. and Balasubramonian, N.K. Journal Article 1984 Studies on the oxygen consumption of the blind catfish Horaglanis krishnai
Mercy, T.V.A. and Pillai, N.K. Journal Article 1984/5 The anatomy and histology of the alimentary tract of the blind cat-fish Horaglanis krishnai
Talwar, P. K. and Jhingran, A. G. Book Section 1992 Monopterus (Monopterus) eapeni Talwar, nova nom
Bailey, R M. and Gans, C. Journal Article 1998 Two new synbranchid fishes, Monopterus roseni from penisular India and M. desilvai from Sri Lanka
Mercy, T.V.A. Book Section 2000 Biology of an endemic blind catfish Horaglanis krishnai Menon
Ponniah, A.G. and Gopalakrishnan, A. Book 2000 Endemic fish diversity of Western Ghats
Mercy, T.V.A. and Pillai, N.K. Journal Article 2001 Studies on the cranial osteology of the blind catfish Horaglanis krishnai menon (Pisces, Clariidae)
Mercy, T.V.A., Pillai, N.K. and Balasubramonian, N.K. Journal Article 2001 Studies on certain aspects of behaviour in the blind catfish Horaglanis krishnia Menon
Ranjit Daniels, R.J. Journal Article 2001 Endemic fishes of the Western Ghats and the Satpura hypothesis
Biju, S.D. and Bossuyt, F. Journal Article 2003 New frog family from India reveals an ancient biogeographical link with the Seychelles
Kurup B.M. Radhakrishnan K.V. and Manojkumar T.G. Conference Paper 2004 Biodiversity status of fishes inhabiting rivers of Kerala (S. India) with special reference to endemism, threats and conservation measures
Bossuyt, F., Meegaskumbura, M., Beenaerts, N., Gower, D.J., Pethiyagoda, R., Roelants, K., Mannaert, A., Wilkinson, M., Bahir, M.M., Manamendra-Arachchi, K., Ng, P.K.L., Schneider, C.K., Oommen, O.V. and Milinkovitch, M.C. Journal Article 2004 Local endemism within the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot
Roelants, K., Jiang, J. and Bossuyt, F. Journal Article 2004 Endemic ranid (Amphibia: Anura) genera in southern mountain ranges of the Indian subcontinent represent ancient frog lineages: evidence from molecular data
Dahanukar, N., Raut, R. and Bhat, A. Journal Article 2004 Distribution, endemism and threat status of freshwater fishes of the Western Ghats of India
Gunawardene, N.R. et al. Journal Article 2007 A brief overview of the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot
Subhash Babu, K.K. and Sivasankaran, B.N. Conference Paper 2010 The hypogean fauna of selected ecosystems of Kerala, India, with two new records
Dahanukar, N., Raghavan, R., Ali, A., Abraham, R. and Shaji, C.P. Book Section 2011 Chapter 3. The status and distribution of freshwater fishes of the Western Ghats
Britz, R., Lalremsanga, H.T., Lalrotluanga and Lalramliana Journal Article 2011 Monopterus ichthyophoides, a new species of scaled swamp eel (Teleostei: Synbranchiformes: Synbranchidae) from Mizoram, India
Raghavan, R.., Das, K.., Nameer, P.O., Bijukumar, A. and Dahanukar, N. Journal Article 2016 Protected area and imperriled endemic freshwater biodiversity in the Westren Ghats hotspot
Britz, R., Doherty-Bone, T.M., Kouete, M.T., Sykes, D. and Gower, D.J. Journal Article 2016 Monopterus luticolus, a new species of swamp eel from Cameroon (Teleostei: Synbranchidae)
Varma, A. Book 2017 Groundwater resource and governance in Kerala: status issues and prospects
Pavan-Kumar, A. Journal Article 2017 Molecular phylogeny of genus Horaglanis (Indian blind catfishes) within Family Clariidae
De Grave, S., Arjun, C.P. and Raghavan, R. Journal Article 2018 The discovery of Euryrhynchidae (Crustacea: Decapoda) in India, with the description of a new genus and species
Britz, R., Sykes, D., Gower, D.J. & Kamei, R.G. Journal Article 2018 Monopterus rongsaw, a new species of hypogean swamp eel from the Khasi Hills in Northeast India (Teleostei: Synbranchiformes: Synbranchidae).
Britz, R., Anoop, V.K., Dahanukar, H. and Raghavan, R. Journal Article 2019 The subterranean Aenigmachanna gollum, a new genus and species of snakehead (Teleostei: Channidae) from Kerala, India
Anoop, V.K., Britz, R., Arjun, C.P., Dahanukar, N. and Raghavan, R. Journal Article 2019 Pangio bhujia, a new, peculiar species of miniature subterranean eel loach lacking dorsal and pelvic fins from India (Teleostei: Cobitidae)
Britz, R., Sudasinghe, H., Sykes, D. and Tharindu Ranasinghe, R.H. Journal Article 2020 Ophichthys desilvai, a poorly known synbranchid eel from Sri Lanka (Teleostei: Synbranchidae)
Sidharthan, A., Raghavan, R., Anoop, V.K., Philip. S. and Dahanukar, N. Journal Article 2020 Riddle on the riffle: Miocene diversification and biogeography of endemic mountain loaches in the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot
Britz, R., Dahanukar, N., Anoop, V.K., Philip, S., Clark, B., Raghavan, R. and Rüber, L. Journal Article 2020 Aenigmachannidae, a new family of snakehead fishes (Teleostei: Channoidei) from subterranean waters of South India
Raghavan, R., Britz, R. and Dahanukar, N. Journal Article 2021 Poor groundwater governance threatens ancient subterranean fishes