On the natural distribution of the Indian Cyprinodont fish Horaichthys setnai Kulkarni

Abstract

Commenting on the distribution of the cyprinodont Horaichthys setnai, the sole representative of the family Horaichthyidae hitherto known only from India, Kulkarni (1940, Rec. Ind. Mus., 41 : 390) remarked that the species occurs in the backwaters ' 100 miles north and south of Bombay'. Job (1940, Jour. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc, 42 : 202) extended its distribution further southwards to the backwaters of Cochin, and commented on its suitability as a larvicidal fish. To my knowledge there are no records of it having been introduced elsewhere for larvicidal work and as such I consider the specimens of it I received from Trivandrum (Valliathurai) and the ones I collected on 28 June 1952 from the creek near Navlakai on the Kathiawar Coast (Gulf of Kutch) as extending the natural distribution of this species by about 160 kilometres to the south and over 800 kilometres to the north west (along the coast) respectively from its previously known range. The euryhyaline adaptation of this species justifies this more widespread occurrence and the recording of its natural distribution before it is introduced into other localities appears desirable.