XXIII. REVISION OF THE INDIAN HOMA- 



LOPTERIDAE AND OF THE GENUS 



PSILORHYNCHUS (CYPRI- 



NIDAE). 



By Sunder Lai, Hora^ M.Sc, Research Assistant, 

 Zoological Survey of India. 



(Plates X, XI.) 



Ill investigating the means whereb}^ the small fish of the 

 mountain torrents of India adhere to rocks and stones, I have 

 been obliged in the first instance to consider the taxonom}^ of the 

 Indian species assigned by Da}^ to Homaloptera. Great confusion 

 prevails as to both the generic position and the specific limits of 

 the species. In this paper I attempt to elucidate these questions. 



Only three Indian species of the genus are described by Day 

 in his Fishes of India and Fauna of British India, viz. H\ brucei^ 

 H. maculata and H. hilineata. Of these species in their correct 

 interpretation the first two were figured' b}" Gra}^ and Hardwicke 

 as Balitora briicei and B. maculata in the Illustrations of Indian 

 Zoology in 1832. Homaloptera hilineata was described later by 

 Blj'th, who distinguished it from the true Balitora of Gray b}^ the 

 following vague phrase, as Bleeker puts it: — " Homaloptera_, Kuhl 

 and van Hasselt. A form intermediate to the ordinar}^ spineless 

 loaches and Balitora of Gray." I intend to criticise this state- 

 ment when discussing the relationships of the family, but it will 

 not be out of place to point out here for the sake of clear under- 

 standing that, except Day and probabl}' Giinther, no ichthyologist 

 who has examined specimens of Balitora brucei, B. maculata and 

 Homaloptera hilineata has put them all in the same genus. The 

 following have been the probable causes of confusion : — 



(i) The publications by Gray of the figures in the •" Illustra- 

 tions ' ' without an}' description. 



(ii) The fact that Day confused South Indian species with 

 those from the Eastern Himalayas and Assam, and further 

 included more than one species under each name he accepted. 

 There is much inconsistencj^ in Day's earlier and later works in 

 the descriptions of the various species he assigned to Homaloptera. 



Vinciguerra/ who studied Balitora hrucsi and Homaloptera 

 hilineata from specimens from Burma, found himself compelled 



1 Vinciguerra, Ann. Mtis. Stor. Nat. Ge^^oi'a XXIX, pp. 320— 335 (1889— 

 1890). 



