Meristic and morphometric differentiation in wild populations of Barilius bendelisis (Hamilton 1807) from Kumaon Region of Uttarakhand, India

Abstract

In this study, differentiation in the morphological traits of an important ornamental cyprinid fish, Barilius bendelisis (Hamilton, 1807) was investigated. A total of 134 individuals were collected from River Gaula and Kosi between November 2013 to March 2014 in Uttarakhand region of Central Himalaya; 6 meristic and 24 morphometric characteristics were recorded for each specimen. Principal component analysis (PCA), discriminant function analysis (DFA) and univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for differentiating the population. 16 significant morphometric variables (p<0.001) were considered for multivariate analysis. The principal component (PC) for 16 morphometric variables generated seven components accounting for 71.84% of the total variation between the populations. First principal component alone accounted for 35.24% of total variation. The step wise discriminant analysis retained one factor showing highest variation in body depth, length of pectoral fin, dorsal fin base length, sub orbital width, head length and snout length. Using these variables, 82.7% of individuals were retained into their original groups (82.7% under a ‘leave-one-out’ procedure). This study hypothesizes that the phenotypic variation between these close populations could be attributed to environmental and genetic factors.