Conference Paper
The hypogean fauna of selected ecosystems of Kerala, India, with two new records
Subhash Babu, K.K. and Sivasankaran, B.N.
Record Number:
4743
Year:
2010
Editor:
Moskric, A. and Trontelj, P.
Abstract:
Kerala is
situated on the South West coast of India and is unique with the presence
of several water bodies of varying size ranging from large lakes,
backwaters, rivers, lagoons, inlets, reservoirs and ponds. In addition,
there are also deep wells of varying kinds contributing to the water
sources on the area. These wetlands and their associated ecotones on the
south west coast India offer ideal habitats for the much undiscovered
subterranean fauna of the region. In this context, it is also worth
mentioning that no comprehensive scientific information is available on
the hypogean fauna of Kerala. This paper attempts to give the status of
selected hypogean fauna of Kerala and reports on two new records of fish
from the area. The first report of a totally blind hypogean fish,
Horaglanis was reported from India. Later in 1963, one Synbranchid eel
was reported from Kottayam, Kerala and was named Monopterus indicus.
In 1996, the Synbranchid eel, Monopterus epeni was reported from the
same district of Kerala State. A cavernicole, Synbranchid eel called
Monopterus digressus was also reported from the southern part of Kerala.
In 2004, another Siluroid blind fish, Horaglanis alikunhi was reported
from the central part of Kerala. All these observations on the subterranean
fishes from Kerala were quite accidental and the information regarding
their taxonomical and ecological details are still fragmentary. This
contribution also describes two new species of fishes adapted to
hypogean condition from central part of Kerala. They were collected
from an old well at Irinjalakuda, Kerala. The species belong to the genus
Horaglanis Menon and Monopterus Lacepede. The taxonomic
descriptions of the two hypogean fishes have been discussed with that of
the genus of the same species described earlier.
Times Cited:
9
Conference Name:
20th International Conference on Subterranean Biology
Conference Year:
2010
Conference Location:
2010
Conference Location:
2010
Relevent Species:
Horaglanis abdulkalami Subhash Babu 2012Horaglanis krishnai Menon 1950Horaglanis alikunhii Subhash Babu and Nayar 2004Kryptoglanis undescribed species [Vincent 2012]Kryptoglanis shajii Vincent and Thomas 2011Rakthamichthys digressus (Gopi 2002) Britz, Dahanukar, Standing, Philip, Kumar and Raghavan 2020Rakthamichthys roseni (Bailey and Gans 1998) Britz, Dahanukar, Standing, Philip, Kumar and Raghavan 2020Rakthamichthys indicus (Eapen 1963) Britz, Dahanukar, Standing, Philip, Kumar, and Raghavan 2020Aenigmachanna gollum Britz, Anoop, Dahanukar and Raghavan 2019