Subterranean Fishes of the World

Country

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 (9^o30’N, 76^o30’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 Monopterus “indicus”. 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.

Museum Holdings

None known.