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Issue: Vol. 4747 No. 1: 2 Mar. 2020
Type: Article
Published: 2020-03-02
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4747.1.4
Page range: 113–132
Abstract views: 216
PDF downloaded: 7

Unexpected species diversity within Sri Lanka’s snakehead fishes of the Channa marulius group (Teleostei: Channidae)

Evolutionary Ecology and Systematics Lab, Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Postgraduate Institute of Science, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.
Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum, London, SW7 5BD, United Kingdom. The Fishmongers’ Company, London, EC4R 9EL, United Kingdom.
Department of Zoology, Open University of Sri Lanka, Nawala, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka. Butterfly Conservation Society of Sri Lanka, 762/A, Yatihena, Malwana, Sri Lanka.
Guangxi Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology & Conservation, College of Forestry, Guangxi University, Nanning, P.R.C.
Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum, London, SW7 5BD, United Kingdom.
Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum, London, SW7 5BD, United Kingdom. Senckenberg Naturhistorische Sammlungen Dresden, Museum für Tierkunde, Königsberger Landstrasse 159, 01109 Dresden, Germany.
Pisces Channa ara C. pseudomarulius C. marulius bullseye snakehead integrative taxonomy DNA barcoding Western Ghats-Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot

Abstract

The taxonomic status of the large snakeheads of the Channa marulius group that occur in Sri Lanka is reviewed and clarified. Two species are recognized from the island, based on both morphological and molecular (cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1: cox1) differentiation: C. marulius Hamilton from the northern dry zone and C. ara Deraniyagala from the middle and lower regions of the Mahaweli basin. Channa ara is endemic to Sri Lanka and can be distinguished from its Marulius group congeners, C. marulius, C. aurolineata and C. auroflammea, by having fewer dorsal- and anal-fin rays, fewer lateral-line scales and fewer vertebrae; from C. marulioides by a different adult colour pattern; and from C. pseudomarulius by having more vertebrae. At the cox1 barcoding locus, Channa ara is at least 3.6% genetically different from C. marulius, and at least 8% different from the other described species in the group. Specimens collected from the southwestern wet zone in Sri Lanka are a puzzling third component of the Marulius group’s diversity, uncovered in this study, and identified here as C. cf. ara. Whilst genetically more similar to C. marulius, C. cf. ara possesses fewer dorsal- and anal-fin rays, fewer lateral-line scales and fewer vertebrae and is therefore morphologically more similar to C. ara. Channa ara can be distinguished from C. cf. ara, however, by differences in circumpeduncular scale count, adult colour pattern, and by an uncorrected pairwise genetic distance of 3.7% in cox1 sequences. A neotype is designated for Ophicephalus marulius ara Deraniyagala.

 

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