Volume 24, Issue 74, July - December, 2023

Channa assamensis, a new species of freshwater snakehead (Teleostei: Channidae) from the Indo-Bhutan drainage of lower Brahmaputra basin of Assam, Northeast India

Sewali Pathak^1♦, Nripendra Nath Sarma², Mrigendra Mohan Goswami³

¹Department of Zoology, Bijni College, Bijni- 783390, Assam, India
²PG Department of Zoology, Bajali College, Pathsala- 781325, Assam, India
³Department of Zoology, Gauhati University, Guwahati- 781014, Assam, India

^♦Corresponding author
Department of Zoology, Bijni College, Bijni- 783390, Assam, India

ABSTRACT

A new species of snakehead is described from the Indo-Bhutan hill streams, a special habitat zone of channids within gachua-complex. Its maximum standard length of about 150 mm and superficially resembles C. pomanensis in appearance, however, differs from their congeners by possessing 4-5 regular transverse black bands on dorsolateral position above the lateral line (vs. 7 unequal transverse black bands in C. pomanensis and 8-9 oblique bands in C. brahmacharyi) and a series of ventrolateral black oblique spotted bars arranged below the lateral line, orange-greyish pectoral with 4-5 semicircular black bars, orange-greyish caudal with dark brown streaks, prominent white distal margin of unpaired fins, swollen cheek, head narrow and compressed, branchial tooth plates two on first-gill arch, two large cycloid scales in lower jaw, maxilla extend to posterior margin of eye, dorsal-fin rays 34-37, anal-fin rays 22-24, pectoral fin-rays 14-15, lateral-line scales 42-46, cheek scales 5, pre-dorsal scales 12, pre-ventral scales 12-13, circumpeduncular scales 20-21, and vertebrae 39-44.

Keywords: Channa new species, Taxonomy, Gachua group, Indo-Bhutan foothills

Species, 2023, 24(74), e74s1580

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi.v24i74.e74s1580

Published: 13 September 2023