Metadata

Rakthamichthys digressus

(Gopi 2002) Britz, Dahanukar, Standing, Philip, Kumar and Raghavan 2020

ORDERSUB-ORDERFAMILY
SynbranchiformesSynbranchoideiSynbranchidae

Note

Species account reviwed by Ralph Britz

Synonyms

Monopterus digressus  Gopi 2002

Country

India

Types

Holotype: ZSI-WGFRS 10684 218mm TL. Paratypes: ZSI-WGFRS Seven specimens 150-242mm TL, no identification numbers.

Distribution

Known only from the type locality: Well at Kuthiravattom, a suburb of Calicut, Kerala, India, elevation 40 meters. 11.2543oN, 75.8009oE.

Habitat

The true habitat is not known but is probably small conduits within a laterite aquifer.

 

Systematics

Britz et al. (2016) state that external similarity to West African Monopterus species suggests that M. digressus might be a member of the ‘Amphipnous group’ within Monopterus.

Conservation Status

[DD:3.1:2011]

(Raghavan, R. and Ali, A. 2011. Monopterus digressus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2011: http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2011-1.RLTS.T172489A6902653.en. Downloaded on 06 July 2017).

Museum Holdings

As above only.

Internet Resources

Two films of Monopterus digressus searching for food are available.

Key References

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
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
Gopi, K.C. Journal Article 2002 A new synbranchid fish, Monopterus digressus from Kerala, peninsular India
Biju, S.D. and Bossuyt, F. Journal Article 2003 New frog family from India reveals an ancient biogeographical link with the Seychelles
Dahanukar, N., Raut, R. and Bhat, A. Journal Article 2004 Distribution, endemism and threat status of freshwater fishes of the Western Ghats of India
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
Gunawardene, N.R. et al. Journal Article 2007 A brief overview of the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot
Ollier, CD and Sheth, HC Journal Article 2008 The High Deccan duricrusts of India and their significance for the ‘laterite’ issue
Subhash Babu, K.K. and Sivasankaran, B.N. Conference Paper 2010 The hypogean fauna of selected ecosystems of Kerala, India, with two new records
Pati, A.K. and Parganiha, A. Book Section 2010 Subterranean fishes of India
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
Vincent, M. and Thomas, J. Journal Article 2011 Observations on the foraging behaviour of a subterranean fish Monopterus digressus (Synbranchiformes: Synbranchidae)
Vincent, M. Journal Article 2012 Occurence, distribution and troglomorphisms of subterranean fishes of penninsular India
Vincent, M. and Thomas, K.J. Book Section 2012 A preliminary survey on the subterranean piscine diversity in Thrissur District, Kerala, India
Britz, R., Kakkassery, F. and Raghavan, R. Journal Article 2014 Osteology of Kryptoglanis shajii, a stygobitic catfish (Teleostei: Siluriformes) from Peninsular India with a diagnosis of the new family Kryptoglanidae
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
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).
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., 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)
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
Britz, R., Dahanukar, N., Standing, A., Philip, S., Kumar, B. amd Raghavan, R. Journal Article 2020 Osteology of ‘Monopterus’ roseni with the description of Rakthamichthys, new genus, and comments on the generic assignment of the Amphipnous Group species (Teleostei: Synbranchiformes).
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)
Raghavan, R., Britz, R. and Dahanukar, N. Journal Article 2021 Poor groundwater governance threatens ancient subterranean fishes
Vasan, T., Das, P., Varma, V., Tiwari, A., Prakash, A., Manilal, D., Thomas, L., Arjun, C.P., Philip, S., Raghavan, R. and Binoy, V.V. Journal Article 2021 Captivity-induced behaviour and spatial learning abilities in an enigmatic, aquifer-dwelling blind eel, Rakthamichthys digressus