A new species of dwarf catfish and named it Pseudolaguvia vespa was discovered in Milak river and its tributaries at Mokokchung district by a team from the department of zoology at Fazl Ali College Mokokchung and some scientists
The information was jointly announced by the research team- assistant professor Limaakum of Fazl Ali College’s zoology department; Dr Praveenraj Jayasimhan, scientist from Central Island Agricultural Research Institute, Port Blair; Balaji Vijayakrishnan of Synchronicity CHS, Mumbai and Shantabala Devi Gurumayum from Zoological Survey of India, Arunachal Pradesh Regional Centre, Itanagar.
According to the team, members of the genus Pseudolaguvia are small sisorid catfishes inhabiting hill streams and large rivers of the Ganges and Brahmaputra drainages in Nepal, India and Bangladesh, the Irrawaddy and Sittang drainages in Myanmar and Western Ghats, peninsular India.
Currently, 23 species of Pseudolaguvia are considered valid. But the discovery of Pseudolaguvia for the first time in Nagaland in Milak river has increased the number of the species to 24.
Nagaland is considered to harbour-rich inland freshwater fish diversity. During a recent ichthyological survey of the Brahmaputra River drainage in Mokokchung district of Nagaland, specimens of a species of Pseudolaguvia were obtained. Further study revealed this material to belong to an unnamed species, which is now called as Pseudolaguvia vespa.
The specific name vespa is derived from the Latin word vespa and means wasp, which is in reference to the alternating chrome-yellow and brown stripes on the body of the fish resembling a wasp.
The North-eastern States of India and neighbouring countries (Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar) harbour a total of 21 species of the genus Pseudolaguvia. Additionally, two species are found in the Western Ghats.
A few more fishes have been identified and are believed to be new species and further work is onto confirm their identity.