– NET Web Desk

A new species of Catfish identified at Arunachal Pradesh’s Siang river has been named after a range forest officer in the Mouling National Park.

Rupir Boli was played a major role in the survey of the species. He was instrumental in collecting the specimens for their identification and categorization.

The new species of catfish Glyptothorax rupiri, a new sisorid catfish was collected from the Siang by Laishram Kosygin, Pratima Singh and Shibananda Rathi.

“It differs from its congeners in the Indian subcontinent by a combination of characters such as the presence of plicae on the ventral surface of the pectoral spine and first pelvic-fin ray and a posteriorly serrated dorsal-fin spine.

“The body with two longitudinal pale-cream stripes, densely tuberculated skin and the presence of numerous tubercles on the dorsal surface of pectoral and pelvic-fin rays also differentiate it from other related species,” the researchers wrote in Zootaxa.

The paper mentioned that the species is presently seen only at the Jambung stream, a tributary of the Siang river near Hawa Camp in Upper Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh (Brahmaputra River basin).