THE FAUNA OF INDIA AND THE ADJACENT COUNTRIES PISCES (TEL EOSTOMI) SUB-FAMILY: SCHIZOTHORACINAE By RAJ TILAK Zoological Survey of India, Debra Dun Edited by the Director, Zoological Surve)' of India, 1987 © Copyright, Government of India, 1987 Published: December, 1987 Price: Inland Rs. 100·00 Foreign: £ 12-00; S IS-00 Published by the Director, Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta and printed at K. P. Basu Printing Works, Calcutta-6 EDITOR'S PREFACE Publication of Pauna of India is one of the major tasks of Zoological Survey of India. This department is a premier insti­ tute on Systematic Zoology in India and has on its staff experts on almost all groups of animals. The extensive systematic works on different groups of animals conducted by these experts are published in a large number of research publications which are scattered and not easily available to general zoologists and research workers in Universities and Colleges. In order to present these important studies in a consolidated form, various experts on djffe­ rent groups of animals are assigned the job of writing up Fauna of India on respective groups of animals. In this line, the Fauna of India on fishes is being written by renowned ichthyologists ; a few volumes are already published while some are in the process of publication. The present volume on Schizothoracinae is one of this series. Schizothoracinae are a group of cyprinid fishes inhabiting fast flowing streams mostly in high altitude areas. Dr. Raj TiIak has undertaken the task of updating the information on this group of high altitude hill-stream fishes, collating available informations together with those of his own. He has been per­ sonally visiting the high altitude areas in Himalaya for many years, studied and collected fresh material of all taxa belonging to this group and presented here morphological account of the valid species of Schizothoracinae alongwith figures. I hope that this comprehensive account on Schizothoracinae will be found very useful by workers particularly in the Himala­ yan region and I wish to congratulate Dr. Tilak for rendering this stupendous task. B.S.LAMBA Jt. Director-in-charge Calcutta Zoological Survey of India Calcutta AUTHOR'S PREFACE Schizothoracinae are a specialised group of fishes, inhabiting streams and rivers in high altitude in Himalaya and other parts of Palaearctic region, and in India not much attention has been paid to this group of fishes probably because of the obvious di­ fficulties in study and collection in the difficult terrain where they live. After the celebrated works of Heckel (1838) and McClelland (1839) on this group of fishes, Day's Fishes of India, published in 1877, was the first account to consolidate information on this group of fishes. Day (1877) described only 8 taxa of Schizotho­ racinae belonging to the genera Oreinus, Schizothorax, Schizopy­ gopsis, Ptychobarbus and Diptychus; the three species described under Oreinus are synonyms of Schizothorax richardsonii. As foot-note, Day (1877) has briefly mentioned 18 species under the genus Schizothorax (== Schizothoraichthys) of which 8 are from Kashmir, 8 from Afghanistan and 2 from Afghanistan and Turke­ stan. Subsequently, Hora and his associates worked on Schizo­ thoracinae of Afghanistan and Ladakh (J. & K.) and published accounts. Inspite of the masterly work s published OD this group, the informations were not available at one place. The types of the species published by Heckel (1838) are housed in Vienna Museum whereas types of many other taxa are not traceable in any museum. The collections studied by Day and Hora are available in Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta but these speci­ mens are so old that all colouration on body and fins has vanished and fin-rays are partly broken due to repeated handling In order to describe these taxa, the present author has studied and collected fresh material of most of the species of Schizothora­ cinae from high altitude areas in Himalaya and elsewhere and stu­ died types of the species of S chizothorax and presented descriptions and figures of various aspects of all taxa so that they could be easily understood by students, teachers and research workers on this group of fishes. I hope that this work will be useful to those who cousult it and stimulate them for further investigation and research. ( vi ) During the collection of specimens of these taxa from high alti­ tude in Himalaya, the staff of Zoological Survey of India, Solan has been quite helpful for which the author is thankful. The author is grateful to Director, Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta for assi­ gnment of this project and for providing encouragement at all stages of work connected with this project. The author is highly thankful to Curator, Vienna Museum for sending types of some of the species described by Heckel (1838) for study; the types have been figured and included in this work. Dehra Dun RAJ TILAK 19.10.1987 Zoological Survey of India ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author feels grateful to Director, Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta for assignment of this project and for providing the necessary facilities to complete it. Thanks are due to his various colleagues: Dr. P. K. Talwar, Deputy Director, Fish Division, Zoological Survey of India, Calcutta and Mr. A. Husain, Zoologist, Zoological Survey of India, Dehra Dun for their help rendered in getting the old collections of Schizothoracinae and junior colleagues: Messers H. S. Mehta, Zoological Assistant and D. P. Juneja, Zoological Assistant, High Altitude Zoology Field Station, Zoological Survey of India, Solan (H. P.) for helping in the collection of these fishes in the field. Special thanks are due to the Director of Fisheries, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir, Srinagar and Mr. B. N. Koul, Fisheries Development Officer of the same depart­ ment for extending help and cooperation in the collection of Schizothoracinae from Kashmir valley. The author would be failing in his duty if a special word of appreciation is not mentioned about the various district level authorities of Ladakh and Anantnag districts (Jammu & Kashmir), Labaul & Spiti, Pangi valley of Chamba district, Kinnour district (Himachal Pradesh), districts of Garhwal and Kumaon hills (Uttar Pradesh) and Wild Life Warden at Periyar, Department of Forests of Kerala for extending coopera­ tion in making the visits of the author to those areas fruitful. Last but not least, the author expresses thanks and deep sense of appre­ ciation to Mr. Tara Singh Farmahan, Artist (I), Northern Regional Station, Zoological Survey of India, Dehra Dun for diligently delineating the figures included in tbis work and to Miss Usha Varma for carefully typing the manuscript. AUTHOR CONTENTS CHAPTBR PAGB I. Introduction ••• 1 II. Indian Schizothoracinae-Historical Background ... 2 III. Classification • •• 16 The taxonomic status of the sub-family Schizothoracinae ... 19 IV. Morphology and Terminology ... 19 The generic characters ••• 20 1. The mouth • •• 20 2. The sucker 22 3. Barbels 24 4. Pharynges I teeth ••• 27 5. The dorsal fin and its spine 28 6. Scales ... 30 7. Oral valves ... 31 8. Alimentary canal ... 31 9. The brain • •• 31 10. Heart and blood vascular system ... 34 11. Urinogenital system _. 34 12. Fecundity • •• 36 13. Breeding period and behaviour 36 14. Habitat • •• 37 15. Food 38 Feeding mechanism ••• 39 V. Morphometric measurement and meristic characters 39 Morphometric characters ••• 39 Meristic characters ••• 44 VI. Systematic list and description of Indian Schizothoracinae ... 46 1. Genus Schizothorax Heckel 47 1. Schizothorax richardson;; (Gray) •_. •• 50 2. Scltizothorax kumaonensis Menon 62 ( x ) 2. Genus Schizopygopsis Steindachner • •• 66 3. Schizopygopsis stol ickzae Steindachner ••• 69 3. Genus Diptychus Steindachner ... 79 4. Diptychus maculatus Steindachner ••• 80 4. Genus Ptychobarbus Steindachner ... 90 s. Ptychobarbus conirostris Steindachner • •• 90 s. Genus Gymnocypris Gunther ... 96 6. Gymnocypris biswasi Talwar ... 98 6. Genus Lepidopygopsis Raj ••• 105 7. Lepidopygops;s typus Raj ... 108 7. Genus Schizolhoraichthys Misra ... 118 8. Schizothoraichthys curvifrons (Heckel) ... 120 9. Schizothoraichthys /ongipinnis (Heckel) 129 10. Schizothoraichthys niger (Heckel) ... 136 11. S chizothoraichthys nasus (Heckel) ••• 144 12. Schizothoraichthys hilgelii (Heckel) ... 147 13. Schizothoraichthys micropogon (Heckel) ... 154 14. Schizothoraichthys pla"i!rons (Heckel) ••• 161 15. Schi:othoraichthys esocinus (Heckel) ... 168 16. Schizothoraichthys progastus (McClelland) ... 178 17. Schizothoraichthys labiatus (McClelland) ... 185 Key to the identification of Indian Scbizothoracinae ... 192 VII. Adaptation of Schizotharacinae to torrential streams 195 VIII. Zoogeographical considerations ... t97 IX. References ... 201 ADDENDUM Schizothoracinae of Pakistan 213 Schizothoracinae of Nepal ••• 216 References ••• 220 Index , .. 221 INTRODUCTION Schizothoracinae are a specialised group of fishes which inhabit fast flowing snow-fed streams and lakes from Anatolia, through Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, aU along Himalaya in India and Nepal, China and U.S.S.R. They have adapted themselves well to the special type of environment. Because of the difficult terrain in which these fishes are found, they ha ve not been collected and studied so well as other fish groups. In India, even Day (1877, 1889) did not properly describe many species of the genus S chizothorai­ chthys and put them only in a foot-note. The taxonomy of these fishes was subsequently studied by some workers such as Hora