A new species of catfish has been discovered in north eastern India.
The new fish, which is a member of the catfish family Erethistidae, has been described by catfish guru Heok Hee Ng of the University of Michigan.
Ng has named the new catfish Pseudolaguvia foveolata in a paper in the journal Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters.
The species was found in the Tista River, part of the Brahmaputra River drainage, during an ichthyological survey of the northern Bengal state of India.
The new discovery brings the total number of species in the Pseudolaguvia genus to six, with the others being: P. tuberculata; P. tenebricosa; P. kapuri; P. shawi and P. ribereiro.
P. foveolata, says Ng, has a shorter thoracic adhesive organ than others in the genus, as well as a more slender, elongated body, a longer adipose base, shorter maxillary barbels and some differences in fin structure.
For more information see the paper: Ng, HH. (2005) - Pseudolaguvia foveolata, a new catfish (Teleostei: Erethistidae) from northeast India. Icthyological Exploration of Freshwaters. Vol. 16. No. 2. pp. 173-178.