Garra lorestanensis: A new species of Blind Cave Fish from Loven Cave in Lorestan Province, Iran.

Many cave systems around the world are home to Cave Fish, populations of Fish that have become isolated within subterranean waterways, and both evolved adaptations to living in these systems and lost adaptations to life in sunlit waterways, most obviously manifested in the absence of pigment and eyes. Loven Cave in the Ab-e Sirum or Ab-e Serum Valley in Lorestan Province, Iran, has been known to be an outlet of a limestone cave system beneath the Zagros Mountains since the mid-twentieth century. Two species of unique Cave Fish have been describd from this cave, both blind and pigmentless; a species of Sucker-mouthed Barb, Garra typhlops, and an Asian Stone Loach, Paracobitis smithi.

In a paper published in the journal FishTaxa on 22 March 2016, Hamed Mousavi-Sabet of the Department of Fisheries at the University of Guilan and Soheil Eagderi of the Department of Fisheries at the University of Tehran, describe a new species of Cave Fish from the Loven Cave.

The new species is also placed in the genus Garra and is given the specific name lorestanensis, meaning 'From Loristan'. The species is described from six adult specimens ranging in size from 27.2-58 mm in length. It differs from Garra typhlops in having a mental disk (disk-shaped structure on the lower jaw, used to attach to the substrate during feeding), which the previously described species lacks; a genetic analysis supported the idea that this was a digannostic for a separate species rather than a variable trait within the species (as with some other species of Garra).

Garra lorestanensis, 55 mm SL; Iran: Loven Cave. Mousavi-Sabet & Eagderi (2016).

See also...

Cobitis nanningensis: A fossil Loach from the Middle Oligocene of Guangxi Province, China.                                                     Loaches, Corbitidae, are freshwater Cypriniform Fish related to Carp and Minnows, found across Eurasia...

A new species of River Loach from Rakhine State, Myanmar.                                         River Loaches (Nemacheilidae) are ubiquitous members of the Eurasian freshwater fauna, with at least 704 species in 46 genera...

A new species of blind Cavefish from Indiana.                                                   Cavefish (Amblyopsidae) are a group of predominantly cave-dwelling Perciform Fish from North America. Of the eight currently described species three are found at the surface, predominantly around springs, and...

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A new species of Spotted Barb from the southern Western Ghats, India.

Spotted Barbs of the genus Puntius are small Cyprinid Fish (freshwater Fish related to Carp) from India and Southeast Asia. They are colourful and popular in the aquarium trade, but their taxonomy is complex and not completely understood, with many cryptic species (species that resemble one-another closely, but which are genetically distinct), which makes species highly vulnerable to extinction.

In a paper published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa on 26 March 2012, a team of scientists led by Marcus Knight of Chennai in Tamil Nadu State, India, describe a new species of Spotted Barb from the southern Western Ghats Mountains of India.

The new species is named Puntius nigripinnis, the Black Finned Spotted Barb, due to its distinctive black fins. It also lacks the distinctive Barbels (whiskers) usually associated with Barbs. The populations assigned to the new species are not new discoveries, they were previously described as belonging to the species Puntius ticto, a name given to Spotted Barbs in India in 1822 by Francis Hamilton, from which a number of cryptic species have been differentiated from 1875 onwards.

Puntius nigripinnis, male specimen. Knight et al. (2012).

The known distribution of Puntius nigripinnis. Knight et al. (2012).

See also A new species of tree-dwelling Fighting Fish from Thailand, A new species of Toothcarp from Iran, Two new species of Asian Sea Bass from South Asia, New species of Priapiumfish from the Mekong Delta and Boney Fish on Sciency Thoughts YouTube.

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