Abstract
The updated checklist of the freshwater fish fauna of Ashambu Hills including an undescribed species of the genus Puntius, and range extension of four cyprinids (Abraham et al. 2011) is continuing testimony to the fact that ichthyofauna of Western Ghats (WG) is poorly understood and is still influenced by the ‘Linnean shortfall’ (lack of knowledge of how many, and what kind of, species exist) and ‘Wallacean shortfall’ (inadequate knowledge on the distribution of species). Ashambu Hills landscape, south of the Shencottah Gap is one of the least explored areas for freshwater fish diversity in Kerala, and so the work of Abraham et al. (2011) is an important first step in filling the knowledge gap. The authors need to be commended for carrying out field surveys for a year in as many as five rivers of this eco-region and collecting 58 species belonging to 16 families, including a species hitherto unknown to science. One of the highlights of this paper
Highlights
I believe that some of the results presented by Abraham et al (2011) are ambiguous and need additional discussion and deliberation by the ichthyological research community of the Western Ghats (WG)
Since Abraham et al (2011) mention that their checklist is based on a compilation of previous literature on fishes of the Ashambu Hills, there is a need to understand whether this species was missed out accidentally from their list, or excluded due to any specific reason
There are no known types for G. mcclellandi (Eschemeyer & Fricke 2011) and it would be interesting to know more about the specimens examined by Abraham et al (2011) for reporting its range extension to the Ashambu Hills
Summary
Since Abraham et al (2011) mention that their checklist is based on a compilation of previous literature on fishes of the Ashambu Hills (in addition to their field surveys), there is a need to understand whether this species was missed out accidentally from their list, or excluded due to any specific reason. In their paper on the fishes ofAshambu Hills,Abraham et al (2011) extends the range of Garra mcclellandi (Jerdon, 1849) to the Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary (Neyyar River).
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