Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2013 | 5(11): 4569–4578 Western Ghats Special Series ISSN Records of the endemic and threatened catfish, Hemibagrus Online 0974–7907 Communication Short punctatus from the southern Western Ghats with notes on Print 0974–7893 its distribution, ecology and conservation status OPEN ACCESS Anvar Ali 1, Neelesh Dahanukar 2, Arun Kanagavel 3, Siby Philip 4 & Rajeev Raghavan 5 1,3,4,5 Conservation Research Group (CRG), St. Albert’s College, Kochi, Kerala 682018, India 2 Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Sai Trinity, Sus Road, Pashan, Pune, Maharashtra 411021, India 2,5 Zoo Outreach Organization (ZOO), 96 Kumudham Nagar, Vilankurichi Road, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641035, India 3 Wildlife Information and Liaison Development (WILD), 96, Kumudham Nagar, Vilankurichi Road, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641035, India 1 [email protected], 2 [email protected], 3 [email protected], 4 [email protected], 5 [email protected] (corresponding author) Abstract: The Nilgiri Mystus, Hemibagrus punctatus, a rare bagrid Jerdon (1849) described Bagrus punctatus, now catfish endemic to the Western Ghats, has been currently listed in the included in the genus Hemibagrus Bleeker, 1862 from IUCN Red List, as ‘Critically Endangered’ with a possibility that it could be extinct. The last validated record ofH. punctatus was known to be in the River Cauvery in southern India, and suggested that 1998, and several surveys since then have not been able to collect the the species occurs in the river and its various tributaries. species from its native range. In this paper, we provide information on new records of this rare catfish from the Western Ghats after a period The exact type locality, however, was not mentioned. of 14 years, and discuss its distribution, ecology and conservation. An Subsequently, Day (1867, 1878) recorded the species updated conservation assessment of this species following the IUCN from the Bhavani (a tributary of the Cauvery), at the Red List Criteria is also provided. foothills of the Nilgiri Hills. Since then, very few validated Keywords: Bhavani, Cauvery, extinct, IUCN Red List, Nilgiri Mystus. records and voucher specimens of this rare catfish are DOi: http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3427.4569-78 | ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:5F7AEDCD-8A8D-4360-BB5B-6862152D0264 Editor: Carl Ferraris, Smithsonian Institution, Portland, USA. Date of publication: 26 July 2013 (online & print) Manuscript details: Ms # o3427 | Received 08 December 2012 | Final received 06 June 2013 | Finally accepted 02 July 2013 Citation: Ali, A., N. Dahanukar, A. Kanagavel, S. Philip & R. Raghavan (2013). Records of the endemic and threatened catfish, Hemibagrus punctatus from the southern Western Ghats with notes on its distribution, ecology and conservation status.Journal of Threatened Taxa 5(11): 4569–4578; http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/ JoTT.o3427.4569-78 Copyright: © Ali et al. 2013. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication. Funding: Rajeev Raghavan thanks the Mohammed Bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund (MBZSCF; Project 1225670) and the North of England Zoological Society (NEZS), Chester Zoo for providing financial support for the project on the ‘Lost fishes of Western Ghats’. Neelesh Dahanukar thanks the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India for the INSPIRE Faculty Fellowship. Competingi nterest: The authors declare no competing interests. Funding sources had no role in study design, data collection, results interpretation and manuscript writing. Acknowledgements: The authors thank Brawin Kumar, Keerthi Krutha, Priyanka Iyer, Payal Molur and Sanjay Molur for their encouragement and logistical support. Siby Philip thanks Allen Benziger for permission to use the photograph of Hemibagrus cf. punctatus. Rajeev Raghavan thanks Ralf Britz, The Natural History Museum (NHM), London for his help and support during the visits to the museum and in examining Day’s material. The authors thank three anonymous reviewers and the subject editor for their critical comments on the manuscript. The publication of this article is supported by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), a joint initiative of l’Agence Française de Développement, Conservation International, the European Commission, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the MacArthur Foundation and the World Bank. 4569 Records of Hemibagrus punctatus Ali et al. available. Material examined The Nilgiri Mystus or the Porthole Mystus, Hemibagrus Hemibagrus punctatus: WILD-12-PIS-026, 22.xi.2012, punctatus is endemic to the Western Ghats (Dahanukar 1 male, 270mm SL, Athikadavu, Bhavani River, Tamil et al. 2004) where it is restricted to the tributaries and Nadu, India, 11.2210N & 76.7630E, elevation 446m, R. reservoirs in the Cauvery drainage (Ng & Ferraris 2000; Raghavan et al.; CRG-SAC-2012.12.1, 12.xii.2012, 1 male, Raghavan & Ali 2011; Ng & Kottelat 2013) (Fig. 1). 182mm SL, stream 16km east of Malavalli, Cauvery Habitat degradation as a result of pollution, construction River, Karnataka, India, 12.4030N & 77.1990E, elevation of dams and indiscriminate fishing were suggested to 585m, A. Ali & S. Philip; CRG-SAC-2012.12.2, 12.xii.2012, have led to drastic population declines (close to 100%) 1 male, 180mm SL, Bannur, Cauvery River, Karnataka, of this species in its native range (Raghavan & Ali 2011). India, 12.3200N & 76.8420E, elevation 644m, A. Ali & S. Field surveys by several researchers failed to record H. Philip; CRG-SAC-2012.12.3, 11.xii.2012, 1 male, 232mm punctatus for the last 14 years (see Raghavan & Ali 2011). SL, Krishna Raja Sagar Dam, Cauvery River, Karnataka, Due to the heavy declines in population, and the fact that India, 12.4250N & 76.5710E, elevation 748m, A. Ali & the last confirmed sighting was in 1998, the species has S. Philip; BMNH 1868.5.14:8; 1 ex., 155mm SL, Bhavani been listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species River, India, F. Day. as ‘Critically Endangered’ (CR) with a possibility that it could be extinct (Raghavan & Ali 2011). Morphology During recent collection trips to various riverine Biometric data presented in Table 1, is the first such fishing villages and reservoirs in the Cauvery basin, information on fresh specimens of this rare catfish. we came across several specimens of H. punctatus in Details of body morphology, coloration, head structure the catches of local fishers. Here we document these and dentition of the fresh specimen are provided in records, and provide information on the distribution, Images 1, 2 and 3 respectively. The morphometric data ecology and conservation status of this rare catfish. In gathered from our specimens are largely in agreement addition, using mitochondrial cox1 gene, we show the with the data taken from museum specimens provided phylogenetic relationship of H. punctatus (Fig. 2) (see by Ng & Ferraris (2000) as well as Ng & Kottelat (2013). Appendix 1 for detailed methods). The small deviations in the data that are observed could The specimens referred to in this paper are deposited in the collections of the Wildlife Information Liaison Development Society (WILD), Coimbatore, India and the Conservation Research Group, St. Albert’s College (CRG- a SAC), Kochi, India. Hemibagrus punctatus (Jerdon, 1849) (images 1, 2, 3 & 4) Synonyms b Bagrus punctatus Jerdon, 1849 Hemibagrus punctatus (Jerdon, 1849): Day (1867); Ng & Ferraris (2000); Jayaram (2006); Ferraris (2007); Ng & Kottelat (2013) Macrones punctatus (Jerdon, 1849): Day (1877; 1889) c Aoria punctatus (Jerdon, 1849): Mukerji (1931) Mystus (Mystus) punctatus (Jerdon, 1849): (in part) Jayaram (1954) Mystus punctatus Jayaram (1977, 1981); Mo (1991); Talwar & Jhingran (1991); Easa & Shaji (2003) Mystus menoda menoda (non Day) - (?) Barman 0 500 © Neelesh Dahanukar Neelesh © (1993). image 1. Specimen of Hemibagrus punctatus (WiLD-12-PiS-026) recorded from Bhavani River. (a) lateral, (b) dorsal and (c) ventral view. 4570 Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2013 | 5(11): 4569–4578 Records of Hemibagrus punctatus Ali et al. be due to the fact that the present measurements were information on the possibility of H. punctatus occurring taken from fresh specimens as opposed to museum in the Krishna River system. The records of this species specimens studied by Ng & Ferraris (2000) and Ng & from the Krishna drainage is by Singit et al. (1987) and Kottelat (2013). It is also essential to note that at least Sugunan (1995) from the Tungabhadra Reservoir. With one of the specimens studied by Ng & Ferraris (2000) the available information, we believe that H. punctatus is not in good condition (Image 5). Further, the sample is restricted to the Cauvery River and its tributaries, and size in the current and previous studies (Ng & Kottelat records from Krishna River including the Tungabhadra 2013; Ng & Ferraris 2000) are too small (n=4 and 4/3 Reservoir may actually be mis-identifications. The respectively). materials from the Krishna may actually be Hemibagrus maydelli. Distribution Although there are records of H. punctatus from Hemibagrus punctatus has been recorded from several west flowing rivers in Kerala viz. Bharatapuzha, Cauvery (Jerdon 1849; Rao & Seshachar 1927; Hora Chaliyar (Biju 2005) and Karuvannur (Thomas et al. 1937) and its principal tributaries,