Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 January 2019 | 11(1): 13175–13179

First report of the catfish Nilgiri Mystus Hemibagrus punctatus (Jerdon, 1849) (Bagridae) from Stanley Reservoir, Tamil Nadu, India

Jayasimhan Praveenraj ¹, Nallathambi Moulitharan ² & M.P. Goutham-Bharathi ³

¹ Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute, Port Blair, Andaman & Nicobar Islands 744101, India.

² Dr. M.G.R. Fisheries College and Research Institute, Ponneri, Tiruvallur, Tamil Nadu 601204, India.

³ Zoological Survey of India, Andaman and Nicobar Regional Centre Port Blair, Andaman & Nicobar Islands 744101, India.

¹ jpr948@gmail.com (corresponding author), ² moulitharan769677@gmail.com, ³ gouthamrussia@gmail.com

doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4199.11.1.13175-13179 | ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:7F05A4BB-865C-4304-8A17-B945F752E96C

Editor: Rajeev Raghavan, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, Kochi, India. Date of publication: 26 January 2019 (online & print)

Manuscript details: #4199 | Received 18 April 2018 | Final received 03 January 2019 | Finally accepted 10 January 2019

Citation: Praveenraj, J., N. Moulitharan & M.P. Goutham-Bharathi (2019). First report of the catfish Nilgiri Mystus Hemibagrus punctatus (Jerdon, 1849) (Bagridae) from Stanley Reservoir, Tamil Nadu, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 11(1): 13175–13179; https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4199.11.1.13175-13179

Copyright: Praveenraj et al. 2019. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium by adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.

Funding: None.

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Acknowledgements: The first author acknowledges Deepak Ganguly for the preparation of images. The second author acknowledges the assistance and support offered by K.P. Kumar and C. Samythurai, Kolathur, during the field trips at Stanley Reservoir, India.

The catfish genus Hemibagrus is represented by three species in the Indian subcontinent, namely, H. menoda (Hamilton, 1822), H. maydelli (Rössel, 1964), and H. punctatus (Jerdon, 1849). Hemibagrus menoda is reported from the Brahmaputra, Ganges, Mahanadi, and Godavari river drainages in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh (Ng & Ferraris 2000; Ng 2010) and H. maydelli is known to be restricted to the Krishna River system in peninsular India (Dahanukar et al. 2011). The Nilgiri Mystus H. punctatus is endemic to the Cauvery River system in the Western Ghats of India (Dahanukar et al. 2004; Ng & Kottelat 2013), where it faces severe threats including pollution, habitat alteration due to construction of dams and indiscriminate fishing resulting in drastic population declines close to 100% and the species being listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List (Raghavan & Ali 2011).

Jerdon (1849) described Bagrus punctatus (=Hemibagrus Bleeker, 1862) from the Cauvery River and its tributaries in southern India. Subsequent records of the species are available from the main stem of the Cauvery (Rao & Seshachar 1927; Hora 1937; Ali et al. 2013) and its various tributaries including Bhavani (Day 1867, 1877, 1878; Mukerji 1931; Rajan 1955), Moyar (Rajan 1955; Rajan 1963; Manimekalan 1998), Hemavathy (Jayaram 1977; Madhyastha & Murugan 1993), Kabini (Easa & Shaji 1997), and Bhavani (Athikadavu) (Ali et al. 2013). Recent ichthyofaunal surveys (March 2018) in the Stanley Reservoir (Image 1; Fig. 1) resulted in the collection of 10 specimens of H. punctatus, which constituting a new distribution record for the species. The collected specimens were identified following Jerdon (1849) and Ng & Kottelat (2013) and subsequently preserved in 10% formalin and deposited in the freshwater fish collections of the Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata (ZSI FF7653-7654), and in the personal collection of J. Praveenraj (JPC-1-8) (Table 1).

Materials collected: ZSI FF 7653-7654, 2ex., 16.iii.2018, 138.84–162.82 mm SL, India, Tamil Nadu, Cauvery River, Stanley Reservoir, 11.9^-0N & 77.77⁰E, 221.50m, coll. N. Moulitharan; JPC-1-8, 8 ex., 16.iii.2018, 132.97–179.8 mm SL, India, Tamil Nadu, Cauvery River, Stanley Reservoir, 11.9^-0N & 77.77⁰E, coll. N. Moulitharan.

Hemibagrus punctatus was not recorded specifically from the Stanley Reservoir in the scientific literature despite being known to be consistently harvested in gill net (mesh size 24–45 mm) fisheries. Locally known as ‘Kallu Keluthi’ in Tamil (Kallu: stone, Keluthi: catfish), this species, however, represents only a negligible part of the capture fisheries of the reservoir and is generally consumed in the dry form.

Hemibagrus punctatus is widely considered to be a rare species as most previous records are based only on a single specimen (e.g., Mukerji 1931; Hora 1937; Rajan 1955). This species was also considered extinct from its native range until its rediscovery (based on four specimens) after a gap of 14 years from the tributaries of Cauvery in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka (Ali et al. 2013).

A number of factors pose threat to the continued survival of H. punctatus in and around the Stanley Reservoir, including ghost fishing, use of pesticides for agriculture along the shores of the reservoir (Image 3), and increasing occurrence of invasive alien species, namely, Oreochromis spp. and Clarias gariepinus (Image 4).

One specimen of H. punctatus (JPC-8, 179.8mm SL) was dissected for examining the gut content, which revealed traces of fish and terrestrial grass. In the specimens examined, we also noted the presence of forked maxillary barbel (Image 2C), an aberration that was also recorded in Mystus vittatus (Bloch, 1794) (Rao 1984).

Although H.punctatus is assessed as Critically Endangered (Raghavan & Ali 2013), Ali et al. (2013) suggested reassigning it to the Vulnerable category considering that its average population decline was more than or equal to 30%. This species, however, continues to face a decline in its native range (Ali et al. 2013), and ecological and community-based conservation measures need to be implemented to ensure healthy populations of this threatened species.

Table 1. Morphometric characters of Hemibagrus punctatus (n=10) from Stanley Reservoir in Tamil Nadu, India. All proportional measurements are expressed as percents of standard length and head length.

Characters	Mean (Mean ± S.E.)
Standard Length (SL)	155.77±5.55mm
In % SL	In mm
Head length	27.77
Head depth	14.40
Maximum head width	20.44
Pre-dorsal length	39.75
Pre-pectoral length	26.71
Pre-pelvic length	52.63
Pre-anal length	70.47
Pre-anus length	59.29
Least depth of caudal peduncle	10.04
Caudal-peduncle length	17.53
Dorsal-fin length	19.67
Dorsal-fin base length	15.44
Pectoral-fin length	18.49
Pectoral-fin base length	4.80
Pelvic-fin length	14.94
Anal-fin length	14.04
Anal-fin base length	12.23
Dorsal to adipose distance	17.82
Adipose-fin height	4.60
Adipose-fin base length	12.97
Post adipose distance	15.58
Maxillary barbel length	58.94
Nasal barbel length	11.16
Mandibular barbel length	23.51
Inner mandibular barbel length	12.47
Eye diameter	3.69
Snout length	11.42
Inter-orbital length	9.91
Dorsal spine length	13.15
Caudal-fin length	22.50
Post-orbital length	12.69
Body depth at anus	15.65
Pectoral-spine length	16.75
Head length (HL)	43.26±1.81mm
In % HL
Head depth	51.86
Maximum head width	70.29
Eye diameter	13.29
Snout length	41.13
Inter-orbital length	35.69
Post-orbital length	45.69
Maxillary barbel length	212.24
Nasal barbel length	40.20
Mandibular barbel length	84.67
Inner mandibular barbel length	44.90

For images/figures – click here

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