Metadata

Pangio bhujia

Anoop, Britz, Arjun, Dahanukar and Raghavan 2019

Pangio bhujia
Pangio bhujia BNHS-FWF 981–991, one of the paratypes, in life, mature female with eggs. From Anoop et al. (2019) and used with the permission of Rajeev Raghavan
ORDERSUB-ORDERFAMILY
CypriniformesCobitoidei Cobitidae

Synonyms

None.

Country

India

Types

Holotype: BNHS FWF 980 25.4mm SL.

Paratypes: BNHS FWF 981-996 22.1mm-26.4mm SL.

Distribution

Type locality: a 6m deep well at Cherinjal, Kozhikode District, Kerala State, India (11°17’42”N, 75°52’7”E, altitude 40m).

Also known from: Indianoor (10°58’56.20”N, 76°2’32.51”E, 37 m. asl) near the town of Kottakkal, India (Sundar et al. 2022), which is 40km south of the type locality.

Habitat

In common with other subterranean fishes in the area (Horaglanis krishnai, H. alikunhii, H. abdulkalami, Kryptoglanis shajii, Kryptoglanis undet, Rakthamichthys indicus, R. roseni, R. digressus and Aenigmachanna gollum) this species probably inhabits very small openings within the laterite aquifer. These are probably of the order of 5-10cm maximum diameter though there may well me many kilometers of tunnels overall. Animals are only seen, and sampled, via man-made well used for water-supply purposes.

Systematics

The two subterranean Pangio species are each others sister species (see below). Britz, Ali and Raghavan 2012 described Pangio ammophila from the Western Ghats. A phylogenetic tree of the genus Pangio, based on mitochondrial co1 gene, given in Sundar et al. (2022) shows that P. ammophila is the sister species to a clade composed of the two subterranean Pangio species, P. bhujia and P. pathala. It seems very likley that either P. ammophila is the direct ancestor of both subterranen species, or that all three of these are derived from a fourth, so far unknown, species.

Biological Notes

Pangio bhujia appears to be a relatively long evolved troglomorph. It has little or no pigment, tiny eyes covered with skin, and a further, and not often seen troglomorphic character, of relatively very big eggs.

Eyes greatly reduced, pigment greatly reduced (GR/GR phenotype of Farley (2021), see also Metadata section for more details of this classification).

Conservation Status

[NE]

Museum Holdings

As above only.

Internet Resources

P. bhujia Genbank COI

P. bhujia Genbank COI

P. bhujia Genbank COI

P. pathala Genbank COI

P. ammophila Genbank COI

P. ammophila Genbank COI

Fishbase species account

Key References

Biju, S.D. and Bossuyt, F. Journal Article 2003 New frog family from India reveals an ancient biogeographical link with the Seychelles
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
Bohlen, J., Šlechtová, V., Tan, H.H. and Britz, R. Journal Article 2011 Phylogeny of the Southeast Asian freshwater fish genus Pangio (Cypriniformes; Cobitidae)
Britz, R., Ali, A. and Raghavan, R. Journal Article 2012 Pangio ammophila, a new species of eel-loach from Karnataka, southern India (Teleostei: Cypriniformes: Cobitidae)
Varma, A. Book 2017 Groundwater resource and governance in Kerala: status issues and prospects
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
Raghavan, R., Britz, R. and Dahanukar, N. Journal Article 2021 Poor groundwater governance threatens ancient subterranean fishes
Sundar, R.L., Arjun, C.P., Sidharthan, A., Dahanukar, N. and Raghavan, R. Journal Article 2022 A new diminutive subterranean eel loach species of the genus Pangio (Teleostei: Cobitidae) from Southern India
Distribution map of subterranean Pangio species in Kerala, India. From Sundar et al. (2022) and with the permission of Rajeev Raghavan
Maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree of the genus Pangio based on mitochondrial co1 gene. Lepidocephalichthys thermalis is used as outgroup. Values along the nodes are percentage bootstraps based on 1000 iterations. From Sundar et al. (2022) and with the permission of Rajeev Raghavan