Itanagar: Much to the delight of zoologists, a new species of miniature catfish in the genus Pseudolaguvia has been discovered in East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh.
Amateur naturalist Lakpa Tamang discovered the catfish in the Sille river recently, Principal Investigator of Centre of Biodiversity under Rajiv Gandhi University Professor D N Das said here on Friday.
Professor Das said the discovery of the new species of named Pseudolaguvia viriosa was new to science.
This is the first new species under the genus, which is found in the upper Brahmaputra river drainage system.
Including this new species, there are now only 15 valid species all over the world.
The news of the discovery has been published in the New Zealand-based Zootaxa journal.
Members of the genus Pseudolaguvia are small South Asian catfishes belonging to the family Sisoridae.
They inhabit hill streams and large rivers, and so far known only from the Ganges river drainage southwards to the Bharathappuzha river drainage and eastwards to the Sittang river drainage.
Tamang also discovered two other new species of catfishes ? Erethistoides enkhiensis and Glyptothorax dikrongensis ? from Senki stream and Dikrong river here in the past.
PTI
