Ecology and Distribution of Fresh-Water Fishes, Amphibia and Reptiles

Abstract

This discussion on the ecology and distribution of fishes, amphibians and reptiles is based mainly on the researches of the author during the past two decades. For many years he was closely associated with HORA and Prof. MANI in their biogeographical studies. Considerable work was done on the fresh-water fishes in collaboration with HORA, who more than any one else contributed in recent years to focuss attention on some of the outstanding problems of the biogeography of India. In addition to specializing on the taxonomy of the Bagrid fishes of Asia and Africa, the author has also had numerous opportunities of personally collecting fishes from nearly all over India and of making observations on their ecology, habits and distributional peculiarities; some attention was also paid to the amphibians and reptiles. The extensive collections of the Zoological Survey of India were also available to him for study and reference. Numerous discussions on some of the intriguing problems of the fresh-water fishes were also held with Prof. MANI in recent years. The results of the pioneer investigations of MEDLIGOTT and BLANFORD (1879), DAY (1876–78, 1889), BLANFORD (1901), SMITH (1931, 1935, 1943) and HORA (1933–55, HORA & NAÏR, 1941) have also been extensively relied upon in this contribution.