Channa quinquefasciata, a new species of snakehead (Teleostei: Channidae) from Torsa River, North Bengal, India
by J. Praveenraj, A. Uma, J. Daniel, M. Knight, N. Moulitharan, S. Balasubramanian, K. Bineesh and H. Bleher
Accepted: 09 October 2018
Abstract
Channa quinquefasciata, a new species of snakehead from Torsa River, West Bengal, differs from all congeners by possessing a unique greyish to chrome-yellow body colour, with five black oblique bands horizontally along the upper half of the lateral body, dorsal-fin membrane with three rows of multiple black to brown oblong spots running horizontally along the whole fin length, and caudal-fin membrane alternating with <-shaped black spots arranged transversely. Genetically, the closest congener of C. quinquefasciata is C. stewartii from which it differs by K2-P sequence distance of 6.8-7.0%, and morphologically by the absence of numerous black spots on the flanks vs. presence, fewer dorsal-fin rays (33-35 vs. 38-40), fewer caudal-fin rays (12 vs. 13), and fewer mid-row lateral-line scales (10-13 vs. 14-16).
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