Dawkinsia is a genus of cyprinid fishes from freshwater in South India and Sri Lanka. It was split off from genus Puntius in 2012.[1]

Dawkinsia
D exclamatio- Rahul Gautam.jpg
Dawkinsia exclamatio
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Cypriniformes
Family: Cyprinidae
Subfamily: Barbinae
Genus: Dawkinsia
Pethiyagoda, Meegaskumbura & Maduwage, 2012
Type species
Leuciscus filamentosus

EtymologyEdit

Dawkinsia is named after the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in recognition of his "contribution to the public understanding of science, particularly, of evolutionary science".[1]: p.80  Dawkins describes this as "a great honour".[2]

DescriptionEdit

Adults typically measure 8–12 cm (3.1–4.7 in) SL. They do not have rostral barbels but might have maxillary barbels. Juveniles have a colour pattern consisting of three black bars on body; this persists to adult stage in some species. Adults have a black, horizontally elongate blotch on the caudal peduncle .Found in western ghats.[1]: p.80 

SpeciesEdit

 
dawkinsia apsara

There are currently nine recognized species in this genus:[3]

ReferencesEdit

  1. ^ a b c Rohan Pethiyagoda, R.; Meegaskumbura, M. & Maduwage, K. (2012). "A synopsis of the South Asian fishes referred to Puntius (Pisces: Cyprinidae)" (PDF). Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters. 23 (1): 69–95.
  2. ^ Bethan Jinkinson (19 July 2012). "Ten species named after famous people". BBC News. Retrieved 19 July 2012.
  3. ^ Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2015). Species of Dawkinsia in FishBase. August 2015 version.
  4. ^ Unmesh Katwate, Deepak Apte, Rajeev Raghavan, Dawkinsia uttara, a new species of filament barb (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) from the Western Ghats of India, Vertibrate Zoology, 70(4): 717– 730, 2020