The stomach, which is characterized by acid peptic digestion in vertebrates, has been lost secondarily multiple times in the evolution of the teleost fishes. The Cypriniformes are largely seen as an agastric order; however, within the superfamily Cobitoidea, the closely related sister groups Nemacheilidae and Balitoridae have been identified as gastric families. The presence of these most recen...

The complete mitochondrial genome of the stone loach Barbatula barbatula (Linnaeus, 1758) (Actinopterygii: Cypriniformes: Nemacheilidae) has been sequenced using a genome-skimming approach on an Illumina Hiseq 2500 platform. The mitochondrial genome of B. barbatula was determined to be 16,630 bp long and presents an organization typical of vertebrate mitogenomes. The mean coverage was 82× with ...

Fish of the superfamily Cobitoidea sensu stricto (namely loaches) exhibit extremely high diversity of color patterns, but so far little is known about their evolutionary mechanism. Melanocortin 1 receptor gene (MC1R) plays an important role during the synthesis of melanin and formation of animal body color patterns. In this study, we amplified and sequenced the partial MC1R gene for 44 loach in...

A new species of nemacheilid, Physoschistura dikrongensis, is described from the Brahmaputra basin in Arunachal Pradesh, India. It is easily distinguishable from congeners in having two V-shaped dark brown bars across the caudal fin towards the distal end; 11–15 irregular bars on the body; dark brown mottled markings on the head; 4 simple and 81⁄2 branched dorsal-fin rays; 4 simple anal-fin ray...

a detailed description of the osteological structure of kiabi loach ( oxynoemacheilus kiabii ), a recently described endemic species caught from gamasiab river, iran, is provided. seven specimens were collected by electrofishing in june 2013 and cleared and stained and its osteological structures were described. the results showed that o. kiabii can be distinguished from other members of the ge...

This study aimed to describe a new specimen of cavefish collected from a karst cave in the Daqikong area of Libo County, Guizhou. Twenty-six cavefish specimens were collected and identified as a new species of Balitoridae: Nemacheilinae, and named Oreonectes daqikongensissp. n. A genetic analysis was performed and showed that its genetic distances from Oreonectes shuilongensis and Oreonectes pl...

Schistura phamhringi, new stone loach, is described from Dutah Stream, tributary of the Yu River (Chindwin basin), near Larong Village, Chandel District, Manipur, India. It is distinguished from all its congeners by a unique combination of characters: 6-7 black saddles, each continued on both flanks forming broad diamond-shaped black bars with narrow ventral margin; bars superimposed on a grey ...

Schistura andrewi, a new species of loach, is described from a tributary of Kaladan River in Mizoram, northeastern India. It is distinguished from its congeners in having the following combination of characters: long axillary pelvic lobe; complete lateral line with 82-95 pores; 2 unbranched dorsal and anal fin rays; 6-7 broad, wider than interspace, black bars on the body; 2 rows of black spots...

Turcinoemacheilus himalaya, new species, is described from the Koshi and Gandaki River basins of Nepal. The new species is distinguished from its hypothesised congener, Turcinoemacheilus kosswigi, from the Euphrates, Tigris and Karoun basins of the Middle East, by the presence of small scales on the posterior half of its body (v. absence of all scales), its shorter caudal peduncle (caudal pedun...