Family PSILORHYNCHIDAE Hora 1926 (Mountain Carps)

Revised 31 Jan. 2024
PDF version (illustrated)

Psilorhynchus McClelland 1838 psilós (Gr. ψιλός), bare, uncovered or smooth (“thin or attenuated” per McClelland); rhýnchos (Gr. ῥύγχος), snout, referring to “elongated and flattened” snouts of P. sucatio and P. variegatus (=balitora)

Psilorhynchus amplicephalus Arunachalam, Muralidharan & Sivakumar 2007 broad-headed, from amplus (L.), wide or broad, and kephalḗ (Gr. κεφαλή), head, referring to its “relatively broad head”

Psilorhynchus arunachalensis (Nebeshwar, Bagra & Das 2007)ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Arunchal Pradesh, India, type locality

Psilorhynchus balitora (Hamilton 1822) local Gangetic word meaning “sand-digger,” referring to its living among stones in rapid mountain streams, or in rivers with pure sandy bottoms, usually close to the bottom

Psilorhynchus bichomensis Shangningam, Kosygin & Gopi 2019ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Bichom River, Arunachal Pradesh, northeast India, type locality

Psilorhynchus brachyrhynchus Conway & Britz 2010 short-snouted, from brachýs (Gr. βραχύς), short, and rhýnchos (Gr. ῥύγχος), snout, referring to its short snout

Psilorhynchus breviminor Conway & Mayden 2008 brevis (L.), short; minor (L.), less, referring to its short, stout appearance

Psilorhynchus chakpiensis Shangningam & Visgwanath 2013ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Chakpi River, Chindwin basin, Manipur, India, type locality

Psilorhynchus gokkyi Conway & Britz 2010 named after Gokkyi, a small village above type locality (Ayeyarwaddy River drainage, Myanmar), honoring the hospitality and help extended to the second author during a November 2009 collecting trip

Psilorhynchus hamiltoni Conway, Dittmer, Jezisek & Ng 2013 in honor of the “exceptional Scottish naturalist Francis Hamilton [or Buchanan-Hamilton] (1762–1829), a pioneer of Indian ichthyology, who spent more than 17 years surveying the freshwater fish fauna of large areas of the Indian subcontinent,” and who described two psilorhynchids in 1822

Psilorhynchus homaloptera Hora & Mukerji 1935 named for its superficial resemblance (“depressed and flattened body, general facies and build”) to hillstream loaches (Homaloptera, Balitoridae)

Psilorhynchus kaladanensis Lalramliana, Lalnuntluanga & Lalronunga 2015ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Kaladan River basin, Mizoram, India, only known area of occurrence

Psilorhynchus kamengensis Dey, Choudhury, Mazumder, Bharali, Thaosen & Sarma 2020ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Kameng River drainage, Arunachal Pradesh, India, where type locality (Tippi Naala, a stream at Tippi) is situated

Psilorhynchus khopai Lalramliana, Solo, Lalronunga & Lalnuntluanga 2014 named after Khopai, a small village near Tuisi River, Mizoram, India, type locality

Psilorhynchus konemi Shangningam & Vishwanath 2016 in memory of B. D. Konem Anal, the senior author’s father, who always supported his son’s research

Psilorhynchus maculatus Shangningam & Vishwanath 2013 Latin for spotted, referring to black blotches on body and caudal fin

Psilorhynchus magnaoculus Shangningam & Kosygin 2021 magnus (L.), large or great; oculus (L.), eye, referring to large eye, 42.6–43.6% of HL

Psilorhynchus melissa Conway & Kottelat 2010 mélissa (Gr. μέλισσα), honey bee, referring to black-and-yellow color pattern of live individuals

Psilorhynchus microphthalmus Vishwanath & Manojkumar 1995 small-eyed, from mikrós (Gr. μικρός), small, and ophthalmós (Gr. ὀφθαλμός), eye, referring to small eye diameter compared with congeners

Psilorhynchus nahlongthai Dey, Choudhury, Mazumder, Thaosen & Sarma 2020 combination of the Dimasa (an ethnic community of Assam, India) words nah, fish, and longthai, stone, a name given by local anglers, referring to its clinging habit on stones

Psilorhynchus nepalensis Conway & Mayden 2008ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Nepal, where it is endemic

Psilorhynchus ngathanu Shangningam & Visgwanath 2013 local name (Anal dialect) for this species in Manipur, India

Psilorhynchus nudithoracicus Tilak & Husain 1980 nudus (L.), bare or naked; thoracicus (Neo-Latin), derived from thṓrax (Gr. θώραξ), chest, referring to its scaleless mid-ventral region resembling a breastplate

Psilorhynchus olliei Conway & Britz 2015 in honor of friend and colleague Oliver (Ollie) Crimmen (b. 1954), fish curator, Natural History Museum (London), for his “invaluable help and great company during a number of recent field trips to Myanmar”

Psilorhynchus pavimentatus Conway & Kottelat 2010 Latin for paved (i.e., with stones), referring to “paved” color pattern, with 6–7 indistinct round-to-squarish dark blotches, arranged in a longitudinal row

Psilorhynchus piperatus Conway & Britz 2010 Latin for peppered, referring to speckling on caudal fin

Psilorhynchus pseudecheneis Menon & Datta 1964 pseudo-, from pseúdēs (Gr. ψεύδης), false; Echeneis, genus of sharksuckers or remoras, presumably referring to how it (and all congeners) use their modified pectoral fins, instead of a modified dorsal fin (as in Echeneis), to adhere to surfaces

Psilorhynchus rahmani Conway & Mayden 2008 in honor of Bangladeshi ichthyologist A. K. Ataur Rahman (b. 1937), Department of Fisheries (Matshya Bhaban, Dhaka), for his contribution to the knowledge of the fishes of Bangladesh

Psilorhynchus robustus Conway & Kottelat 2007 Latin for of oak or oaken and, by extension, hard, firm or solid (but often used by ichthyologists to mean fat or stout), referring to overall robust appearance

Psilorhynchus rowleyi Hora & Misra 1941 in honor of Maj. Guy Rowley (1889–1976), a shikari (big game hunter) and member of expedition that collected holotype

Psilorhynchus sucatio (Hamilton 1822) Latinization of sukati, local Gangetic name for this species

Psilorhynchus tenura Arunachalam & Muralidharan 2008 tenuis (L.), thin or slender; ourá (Gr. οὐρά), tail, referring to slender peduncle region

Psilorhynchus tysoni Conway & Pinion 2016 in honor of American ichthyologist Tyson R. Roberts (b. 1940), who collected most of the type specimens and made them available for study