Abstract
Morphological and molecular analyses of specimens representative of the geographic range of the cyprinid genus Amblypharyngodon in Sri Lanka suggest the presence of only a single species in the island, for which the name Amblypharyngodongrandisquamis Jordan & Starks, 1917, is available. Amblypharyngodongrandisquamis is a species endemic to Sri Lanka, distributed across the lowlands of both of the island’s main climatic zones. It is distinguished from all other species of Amblypharyngodon, including the three species recorded from peninsular India (A.mola, A.microlepis, and A.melettinus), by a suite of characters that includes a body depth of 26.9–31.2% of the standard length (SL), 42–56 scales in the lateral series (of which usually 8–16 are pored), 20–24 circumpeduncular scales, 14–17 scale rows between the origins of the dorsal and pelvic fins, a dorsal-fin height of 21.1–27.6% SL, 18–19 caudal vertebrae and an eye diameter of 22.7–30.5% of the head length. Amblypharyngodongrandisquamis differs from A.melettinus and A.mola by uncorrected pairwise genetic distances of more than 9% and 6%, respectively, for the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI) gene.
Highlights
The cyprinid genus Amblypharyngodon Bleeker, which has a range extending from the Indian subcontinent to Southeast Asia, is considered to contain just five valid species: A. atkinsonii (Blyth), A. chulabhornae Vidthayanon & Kottelat, A. melettinus (Valenciennes), A. microlepis (Bleeker), and A. mola (Hamilton) (Vidthayanon and Kottelat 1990)
Jordan and Starks (1917) described a second species from Sri Lanka, A. grandisquamis, which they distinguished from A. melettinus as follows: “This species is closest to Amblypharyngodon melettinus, but is deeper and has much larger scales”
In the Bayesian phylogenetic inference for the cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI) dataset, A. mola was recovered as the sister species of A. grandisquamis, though weakly supported (PP = 66, Figure 1A)
Summary
The cyprinid genus Amblypharyngodon Bleeker, which has a range extending from the Indian subcontinent to Southeast Asia, is considered to contain just five valid species: A. atkinsonii (Blyth), A. chulabhornae Vidthayanon & Kottelat, A. melettinus (Valenciennes), A. microlepis (Bleeker), and A. mola (Hamilton) (Vidthayanon and Kottelat 1990). The genus was first reported from Sri Lanka by Günther (1868: 202), who identified specimens from the island as Leuciscus melettina Valenciennes, in Cuvier and Valenciennes 1844 (hereafter Valenciennes 1844), type locality Bombay [Mumbai], India. Jordan and Starks (1917) described a second species from Sri Lanka, A. grandisquamis (type locality “river at Colombo”), which they distinguished from A. melettinus as follows: “This species is closest to Amblypharyngodon melettinus, but is deeper and has much larger scales”. The identity of the species of Amblypharyngodon inhabiting Sri Lanka has been confused, with some authors considering only A. melettinus to be present in the island (e.g., Deraniyagala 1952: 45, Senanayake 1980: 167, Pethiyagoda 1991: 25), while others consider both A. melettinus and A. grandisquamis to be present (Pethiyagoda 2006, MOE 2012, De Silva et al 2015). No specimenbased study has been conducted to resolve this confusion until now
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