Morphological Characterization of Genus Puntius from Southern Western Ghats, India

Abstract

Among the different kinds of freshwater fishes, fishes grouped under the genus Puntius, belonging to the order Cypriniformes, have been considered an important protein source of the daily diets of human beings in south India, in particular. The inter and intra-genetic relationships of the genus Puntius species have not yet been well understood to date and the species are reported to exist in various water bodies of peninsular India. In the present study, a total of 168 individuals of the 17 species of genus Puntius have been collected using a cast net, dip net, gill net and drag net from 31 locations of six river systems meandering eastward flowing rivers of Bhavani, Moyar, Chalakudy, Periyar, Cauvery and Kabini of Southern Western Ghats have collected for taxonomy study. The taxonomic status of Genus Puntius has been discussed in this paper based on the Meristic and morphometric characteristics. 35 Morphometric measurements and 23 meristic character counts were made based on the methodology described by Rainboth. All the morphometric characters were divided by the standard length of the fish, to nullify the size effect. The genus Puntius has been divided into Barbodes, Dawkinsia, Eechathalakenda, Haludaria, Pethia, Puntius, Sahyadria, Systomus. The significance of the study and the taxonomic placement of the species have also been concisely discussed. It is clearly expressed that only a few morphometric and meristic characters show the variation among the species.