On a little known Indian Cobitid fish, Enobarbichthys maculatus (Day)

Abstract

IN 1867 Dr. Francis Day described a small loach from Madras as Platacanthus maculatus, with a characteristic long dorsal fin composed of 30 rays. However, the type of the genus Platacanthus Day (1865), namely, P. agrensis Day is a synonym of Lepidocephalus thermalis (Valenciennes), which is characterised by a very short dorsal fin with only 9 rays. This naturally restricted Platacanthus Day to the synonymy oi Lepidocephalus Bleeker and hence Day (1870) proposed the generic name Jerdonia to accommodate the second species Platacanthus maculatus, defining the genus as ' Body elongated. Barbels eight, one rostral, two maxillary and one mandibular pairs. A free bifurcated suborbital spine. Dorsal fin elongated (thirty rays). Internal pectoral rays osseous. Origin of anal slightly posterior to the termination of the dorsal.' Unfortunately, the name Jerdonia is preoccupied in Malacology (Blandford, 1861), and in Ornithology (Hume, 1870), a situation of which Day himself was probably aware of, as in his monographic series on Indian Cyprinidae (Day, 1872 : 179) in a foot-note under the genus Jerdonia there appears an editorial comment that ' This name has been also applied in concology and Ornithology.' Hence, in accordance with the Rules of Zoological Nomenclature, Whitley (1931) proposed the name Enobarbichthys to replace Jerdonia Day, with Platacanthus maculatus Day as the type, and thus far the genus is monotypic. Besides Day's account of this loach based on a single specimen, nothing more is known about it. Hence it is felt desirable to record here some additional data I was able to gather by re-examining the holotype in the collection of the British Museum (Natural History) in September 1956.