Balitora chipkali, Kumkar, Pradeep, Katwate, Unmesh, Raghavan, Rajeev & Dahanukar, Neelesh, 2016

Balitora chipkali View in CoL , sp. nov.

Common name: Chipkali stone loach ( Figs. 1 View FIGURE 1 , 2 View FIGURE 2 )

Holotype: BNHS FWF 193, 47.7mm SL, India: Karnataka, Astoli River, Kali River system, Ramnagar (15.430°N, 74.480°E, 630m a.s.l.), coll. P. Kumkar and S. Gosavi, 23-Feb-2014.

Paratypes: BNHS FWF 195 (39.8mm SL) and WILD-15-PIS-228 (42.9mm SL), same data as holotype; BNHS FWF 194 (43.0mm SL), WILD-15-PIS-229 (43.1mm SL) and ZSI-WRC P/4782 (43.6mm SL), India: Karnataka, Kali River system, Chandewadi, Joida (15.381°N, 74.403°E, 575m a.s.l.), coll. P. Kumkar, S. Gosavi and S. Tapkir, 27-Mar-2014; WILD-15-PIS-230 (36.5mm SL) and ZSI-WRC P/4781 (50.6mm SL), India: Karnataka, Kali River system, Kamra, Joida (15.342°N, 74.441°E, 670m a.s.l.), P. Kumkar, S. Gosavi and S. Tapkir, 27-May-2014; ZSI- WRC P/4780 (45.9mm SL), India: Karnataka, Kali River system, Ramagar (15.430°N, 74.480°E, 630m a.s.l.), P. Kumkar and S. Gosavi, 23-Feb-2014; WILD-15-PIS-252 (51.4mm SL), Chandewadi, Joida, Kali River (15.381°N, 74.403°E, 575m a.s.l.), N. Dahanukar, U. Katwate and P. Kumkar, 5-Feb-2016; BNHS FWF 196 (29.0mm SL), India: Karnataka, Kali River system, Kamra, Joida (15.342°N, 74.441°E, 670m a.s.l.), N. Dahanukar, U. Katwate and P. Kumkar, 28-Jun-2014 (c&s).

Additional material. BNHS FWF 269–270, 2 ex. (34.4–38.9mm SL), India: Karnataka, Kali River system, Kamra, Joida (15.342°N, 74.441°E, 670m a.s.l.), P. Kumkar, S. Gosavi and S. Tapkir, 27-May-2014 (both c&s).

Diagnosis. Balitora chipkali differs from all its congeners based on a combination of characters including the possession of only a single maxillary barbel on each corner of the gape, upper lip with 9–12 papillae in first series and 3–8 papillae in second series, lower lip with 6 papillae, eye diameter greater than 15% HL, gape of mouth less than 30% HL, short snout (49.6–57.6% HL) with snout length less than 4 times eye diameter, body depth less than 15% SL, deep caudal peduncle (6.9–7.8% SL), caudal peduncle length-to-depth ratio less than 3.0, 66–68 lateral line scales, 11 caudal vertebrae excluding compound centrum, third infraorbital sensory-canal tube straight, pharyngobranchial 2 greatly reduced, posterior ceratohyal more than 80% of the length of the anterior ceratohyal and almost round; 7 dorsal saddles, not reaching lateral irregular crossbar markings.

Description. Morphometric data provided in Table 1 View TABLE 1 . General body shape as in Fig. 1 View FIGURE 1 ; details of head as in Fig. 2 View FIGURE 2 .

Body elongate, sub-cylindrical, compressed dorsally anterior to dorsal-fin origin, compressed laterally posteriorly; dorsal profile convex, deepest at dorsal-fin origin, ventral profile straight. Body wider than its depth at dorsal-fin origin, deeper than wide at anus. Head small, less than one-fourth SL, depressed, longer than broad, with prominent tubercles on cheeks, lateral and ventral surface of head up to base of pectoral fin, and a distinct row on anterodorsal margin of orbit; tubercles on snout small, indistinct. Eyes small, dorso-laterally positioned in posterior half of head, not visible from underside of head. Snout oblique, rounded. Nostrils positioned dorso-laterally, closer to anterior border of eye than to snout tip, skin flap divides anterior and posterior nares. Mouth inferior, a deep groove between rostral fold and upper lip. Lips fleshy. Gape of mouth less than half head width at nares. Barbels three pairs, two rostral: outer rostral barbels longer than inner ones; one pair of maxillary barbels, situated at the angle of mouth. Lips papillated, upper lip with two rows of papillae, an outer row with 8(1), 9*(4), 10(3), 11(2) or 12(1) large papillae and an inner row of 3(2), 4(1), 5(2), 7(2) or 8*(4) small papillae. Lower lip with 8*(11) papillae, with two median inner papillae elongated ( Fig. 2 View FIGURE 2 ). Gill opening extending vertically from lower third of the eye to vertical from one-third gape of mouth.

Body with scales throughout except head and ventral surface anterior to anal-fin origin. All scales keeled at their posterior border. Lateral line complete, curving slightly upward at posterior border of pectoral-fin base. Lateral-line scales 66 (3), 67*(5) or 68 (2). Caudal peduncle slender, its length 2.8* (2.0–2.8) times its depth. Vertebrae 34 (3) comprising of 4 Weberian + 18 abdominal + 11 caudal + 1 compound centrum ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 ).

Dorsal-fin origin vertical from pelvic-fin origin, closer to tip of snout than to caudal-fin base; its anterior margin straight, slightly curved at tip, with iii (10) simple and 8½ (10) branched rays. Paired fins horizontally orientated, base with tubercles on dorsal side. Pectoral fin elongated, longer than head, its anterior margin thickened, curved, a distinct gap between its posterior border and pelvic fin origin; with viii (3) or ix* (7) simple rays and 11* (7) or 12 (3) branched rays. Simple rays of pectoral fin with thick cushion-like longitudinal pads on the ventral surface. Pelvic-fin length equal to or slightly shorter than head length; fin origin closer to snout tip than to end of caudal peduncle, its posterior end reaching anus, with ii (10) simple and 9 (10) branched rays, simple rays padded. Anal fin with iii (10) simple and 5½ (10) branched rays. Caudal fin emarginate, its lower lobe longer than upper.

Coloration. In preserved specimens ( Fig. 1 View FIGURE 1 ), body beige to light brown dorsolaterally; pale white to yellow ventrally; one narrow brown band on nape, followed by 7 brown, almost round, saddles on dorsal surface, with two anterior to dorsal fin, one at posterior half of dorsal-fin base and four posterior to dorsal-fin base; dorsal saddles do not reach lateral irregular crossbar markings; numerous narrow, irregular, brown crossbars present along lateral line; head dorsolaterally light brown, pale white to yellow ventrally, with brown patches on head and snout; base of pelvic and pectoral fins light brown with dark-brown patches; paired fins yellowish proximally, hyaline distally; all other fins hyaline with brown spots on fin rays, forming a median band in the pectoral, pelvic, dorsal and anal fins. Caudal fin hyaline, with 2–3 dark bands. In life ( Fig. 4 View FIGURE 4 ), the fish is darker in appearance, with light-brown body; other coloration similar to preserved specimens.

Etymology. The species name ‘ chipkali ’ means lizard in Hindi; it refers to the general lizard-like appearance of the fish in its habitat, where is it usually found adhering to rocks and boulders in fast-flowing streams. The name is a noun in apposition.

Habitat and distribution. Balitora chipkali is currently known from three nearby localities within the westward-flowing Astoli tributary of the Kali River system in the Western Ghats of northern Karnataka ( Fig. 5 View FIGURE 5 ). The type locality ( Fig. 6 View FIGURE 6 ) of the species is a shallow stream with boulders and rocks, and pebbles, gravel and mud as substratum. Co-occurring fish species include members of family Cyprinidae : Haludaria sp., Hypselobarbus pulchellus (Day) , Osteochilichthys cf. nashii (Day) , Pethia sp., Puntius cf. sahyadriensis Silas , Devario malabaricus (Jerdon) ; Aplocheilidae : Aplocheilus cf. lineatus (Valenciennes) , Mastacembelidae : Mastacembelus armatus (Lacepède) ; and Sisoridae : Glyptothorax sp.

Molecular analysis. The best partitioning scheme was based on minimum BIC was TIM2+I+G4 nucleotide substitution model for first two codon positions of both COI and Cytb gene sequences (BIC = 29164.01, lnl = - 13760.76, df = 208) and TN+G4 nucleotide substitution model for third codon positions of both COI and Cytb gene sequences (BIC = 29645.62, lnl = -13614.62, df=306). In the maximum likelihood tree of concatenated COI and Cytb gene sequences, Balitora chipkali formed a monophyletic group with B. laticauda as its sister taxon ( Fig. 7 View FIGURE 7 ). The raw genetic distance between Balitora chipkali and B. laticauda was 1.9–2.2% based on COI and 3.4–4.3% based on Cytb gene partial sequences, which is substantially greater than the intra-species variation of 0.0–0.7% and 0.0–1.1% for COI and Cytb respectively, in widely separated populations (from 13.2°N to 17.5°N latitudes) of B. laticauda ( Table 2 View TABLE 2 and 3 View TABLE 3 ). Southern Indian species of Balitora formed a monophyletic group along with Hemimyzon elongatus (Chen & Li, in Li & Chen, 1985) , which was well separated from Balitora kwangsiensis ( Fig. 7 View FIGURE 7 ). This was also reflected in a lower genetic distance between the southern Indian species of Balitora and H. elongatus as compared to their distance from B. kwangsiensis ( Table 3 View TABLE 3 ).