Antara News, Thursday, December 30, 2010
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - An Indonesian biolgy student at George Washington University in the US has discovered four new fresh water fish species in Southwest Sumatra rivers.
Daniel Natanael Lumbantobing who is studying for a doctoral degree in biology at George Washington University said the four new species belonged to the Cyprinidae family.
In an e-mail to ANTARA here Thursday, he said he had named his four discoveries Rasbora api, Rasbora nodulosa, Rasbora kluetensis, and Rasbora truncata.
All of them were part of the Rasbora trifasciata species, he said.
One of the new found species was named Rasbora api because the dorsal fins and caudal fins or tails were orange-tinged resembling the color of a flame (api), Daniel said.
Rasbora api was distinguished from other species in the R. trifasciata-group by an anteriorly tapering black midlateral stripe extending posteriorly along the flank from the first lateral-line scale system and stout conical cephalic tubercles, whereas Rasbora nodulosa had nodular and smaller cephalic tubercles, Daniel said.
Meanwhile, Rasbora kluetensis was distinguished from its congeners in the species group by the conical cephalic tubercles with a somewhat protruding base bearing microridges.
The fourth new species, Rasbora truncata, differed from its congeners in the species group by a combination of meristic, pigmentary, and tuberculation features, and details of the lateral line system, he said.
The discpvery of the four new fresh water species was published in the December 2010 issue of Copeia, a journal of science issued by The American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists.
Daniel described the four new species during an inventory collection of fresh water fish in North Sumatra and Southwestern coast of Aceh in July-August 2006.
"We moslty used `seine` and `gill` nets to catch the fish. The captured fish had been preserved to be kept as museum items," he said.
There were some other members of Rasbora genus in Indonesia such as Saluang in Kalimantan, Paray in Sunda, Wader in Java, badar in Minang, Relo in Gayo, and Burinsak in Tapanuli, he said.
There were around 50 species identified and there might be numerous other species that were still unidentified, he said.
"Therefore, there is a possibility other species in the Rasbora category will be discovered in the future," Daniel said.
