Scientists from Thailand and Singapore have described eight new species of torrent catfishes in the genus Oreoglanis from Thailand.
The new species all hail from Thailand, and are named in a paper by Chavalit Vidthayanon, Pasakorn Saenjundaeng and Heok Hee Ng published in the latest issue of the journal Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters.
The new species are diagnosed by a combination of morphology of maxillary-barbel tip, lower-lip morphology, extent of pectoral fin, fusion of the adipose fin with the upper procurrent caudal-fin rays, caudal-fin morphology, and the relative proportions of the head, snout, nasal barbel, interorbital distance, eye, body depth at anus, adipose fin, caudal peduncle and post-adipose distance.
Oreoglanis colurus
This is known from the upper Chao Phraya River drainage in Thailand, and is named after its short caudal peduncle (Greek kolouros=bobtailed).
Oreoglanis heteropogon
This is known from the Salween River drainage in Thailand and is named after its barbel morphology (Greek heteros=different and pogon=beard).
Oreoglanis laciniosus
This is known from the Salween River drainage in Thailand and is named after the shape of its lower lip margin (Latin laciniosus=indented).
Oreoglanis nakasathiani
This is known from the upper Chao Phraya River drainage in Thailand, and is named after Seub Nakasathian, a Thai wildlife biologist.
Oreoglanis sudarai
This is known from the upper Chao Phraya River drainage in Thailand, and is named after Surapol Sudara, a Thai marine biologist.
Oreoglanis suraswadii
This is known from the Mekong River drainage in Thailand, and is named after Plodprasop Suaswadi, former Director General of the Department of Fisheries, Thailand.
Oreoglanis tenuicauda
This is known from the upper Chao Phraya River drainage in Thailand, and is named after the slender appearance of its caudal peduncle (Latin tenuis=slender and cauda=tail).
Oreoglanis vicinus
This is known from the upper Chao Phraya River drainage in Thailand, and is named after its close proximity in geographic range to two other new species described in this study (Latin vicinus=neighbouring).
For more information, see the paper: Vidthayanon, C, P Saenjundaeng and HH Ng (2009) Eight new species of the torrent catfish genus Oreoglanis (Teleostei: Sisoridae) from Thailand. Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters 20, pp. 127"156.