Cryptic diversity in the Indian clade of the catfish family Pangasiidae resolved by the description of a new species

Description of a new Pangasius (Valenciennes, 1840) species, from the Cauvery River extends distribution range of the genus up to South Western Ghats in peninsular India

“…The past few decades have witnessed the discovery of several new catfish species from southeast and south Asia ( Pouyaud, Teugels & Legendre, 1999 ; Roberts, 1999 ; Pouyaud & Teugels, 2000 ; Pouyaud, Gustiano & Teugels, 2002 ; Gustiano, Teugels & Pouyaud, 2003 ) including some from the peninsular India ( Radhakrishnan, Sureshkumar & Ng, 2010 ; Babu, 2012 ; Ng, 2013 ; Lal et al, 2017 ; Dwivedi et al, 2017 ). Pangasiid catfishes ( Pangasius Valenciennes, 1840) are popular for their commercial value in both aquaculture and wild capture fisheries ( Roberts & Vidthayanon, 1991 ) and are considered to be a delicacy.…”

“…Pangasiid catfishes ( Pangasius Valenciennes, 1840) are popular for their commercial value in both aquaculture and wild capture fisheries ( Roberts & Vidthayanon, 1991 ) and are considered to be a delicacy. A total of 22 valid species are distributed in the river basins of southeast and south Asia ( Dwivedi et al, 2017 ; Fricke, Eschmeyer & Fong, 2021 ). These have also been introduced in many countries for aquaculture.…”

“…These have also been introduced in many countries for aquaculture. Among the valid species, only two species have been known from the Indian rivers, the most common is Pangasius pangasius (Hamilton, 1822), distributed in the rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra and Godavari, and the other, Pangasius silasi ( Dwivedi et al, 2017 ) is described from the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, in the Krishna River.…”

Length-weight relationship of a newly described catfish Pangasius silasi Dwivedi et al., 2017 from Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, Telengana, India

“…Pangasius pangasius, which is widely distributed in India, Bangladesh and Nepal (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991;Shrestha, 2008;Jayaram, 2010) and Pangasius silasi Dwivedi et al, 2017 (Fig. 1), recently described from the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam (Dwivedi et al, 2017). While P. pangasius has been reported in India from Ganga, Brahmaputra and the east flowing rivers, Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna and Cauvery (Silas, 1952;Jayaram, 2010), P. silasi is reportedly endemic to Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, in the Krishna River region.…”

“…1. Pangasius silasi Dwivedi et al, 2017 using a top pan digital weighing balance. Weight was measured after draining water from the buccal cavity and wiping the moisture content on the body of fish (King, 1996).…”