New Species of Miniature Catfish Discovered in India

A new species of miniature catfish was discovered in East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh. The newly discovered fish belongs to the genus Pseudolaguvia.

It was discovered by a team of researchers including amateur naturalist Lakpa Tamang and professor D.N. Das from Rajiv Gandhi University (RSU) in the Sille River. The miniature catfish that is new to science has been named as Pseudolaguvia Viriosa.

Under the genus Pseudolaguvia, there are totally only 15 valid species across the world. During the last few years, two species of catfish were discovered, namely Erethistoides enkhiensis and Glyptothorax dikrongensis from Senki stream and Dikrong River.

Members of the genus Pseudolaguvia are small south Asian catfishes belonging to the family Sisoridae. They inhabit hill streams and large rivers, and are so far known only to inhabit the Ganges river drainage (northern India) southwards to the Bharathappuzha river (southern India) drainage and eastwards to the Sittang river drainage (Myanmar).

Professor Das was quoted in Times of India stating, "They inhabit hill streams and large rivers, and are so far known only to inhabit the Ganges river drainage (northern India) southwards to the Bharathappuzha river (southern India) drainage and eastwards to the Sittang river drainage (Myanmar)." 

The species has been described taxonomically by Tamang and deposited under Zoological Survey of India, Itanagar and the RGU museum.

The new finding has been published in the New Zealand-based journal Zootaxa.