Shillong: A new species of loach fish has been discovered in Meghalaya’s South Garo Hills District.
A group of scientists, led by Principal of Lady Keane College Dr Khlur Mukhim, has discovered a new species of loach inside three caves in western Meghalaya’s South Garo Hills bordering Bangladesh.
Loach is a freshwater bottom-dwelling fish and is found across the rivers in South East Asia.
The researchers named the new loach species as Schistura sonarengaensis after it was found in three caves — Sonarenga, Nakama, and Chiabol — within the South Garo Hills district. These caves are part of the Barak-Surma-Meghna drainage system.
The research, funded by the ICAR-National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources based in Lucknow, was conducted by Lady Keane College in collaboration with Gauhati University.
The findings were published in the Journal of Fish Biology. The journal covers all aspects of fish and fisheries biological research, both freshwater and marine. It is published by Wiley-Blackwell and is the official journal of the Fisheries Society of the British Isles.
According to the journal, the new species Schistura sonarengaensis is characterised by its prominent eyes but is easily distinguished from all the congeners of the genus Schistura from Barak-Surma-Meghna and adjacent rivers drainages of northeast India.
It has 13-26 vertically elongated to circular mid-lateral black blotches overlayered on a grayish-black mid-lateral stripe on a dull white or pale-beige (golden brown in life) body, it added.
Although the new species lacks typical morphological adaptations usually associated with a subterranean life, such as complete absence (or vestigial presence) of eyes and pigmentation, it exhibits a reduction of pigmentation when compared to compared to its surface-dwelling relatives, Dr Mukhim said.
The genetic molecular analysis further confirmed that this species is distinct from others in the region.
