Currently the genus Dawkinsia comprises twelve valid species: D. apsara Katwate, Knight, Anoop, Raghavan & Dahanukar, 2020, D. arulius (Jerdon, 1849), D. assimilis (Jerdon, 1849), D. austellus Katwate, Knight, Anoop, Raghavan & Dahanukar, 2020, D. crassa Katwate, Knight, Anoop, Raghavan & Dahanukar, 2020, D. exclamatio (Pethiyagoda & Kottelat, 2005), D. flamentosa (Valenciennes, 1844), D. lepida (Day, 1868), D. rohani (Rema Devi, Indra & Knight, 2010), D. rubrotincta (Jerdon, 1849), D. srilankensis (Senanayake, 1985) and D. tambraparniei (Silas, 1954). With the description of D. uttara, the number of valid species of Dawkinsia is now 13, of which 11 are endemic to rivers originating in the Western Ghats of India, while D. flamentosa is widely distributed across the Western and Eastern Ghats of India, and Sri Lanka, and D. srilankensis is endemic to Sri Lanka. - Katwate, U. et al. 2020: New flament barb from Western Ghats.
From: Dawkinsia uttara, a new species of filament barb (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) from the Western Ghats of India
Unmesh Katwate, Deepak Apte, Rajeev Raghavan
Published online at www.senckenberg.de/vertebrate-zoology on November 20, 2020; 70(4): 717– 730
2020
1 Adults with horizontally elongated blotch on caudal
peduncle ................................................................. 2
– Adults with two or more blotches on the body ...... 9
2 Mouth inferior ........................................................ 3
– Mouth not inferior .................................................. 6
3 2 scales between lateral-line scale row and pelvic-fn
origin ...................................................................... 4
– 2½ scales between lateral-line scale row and pelvicfn
origin ................................................ D. assimilis
4 Caudal peduncle blotch reaching up to 19th or 20th
lateral-line scale ........................................ D. apsara
– caudal peduncle blotch reaching up to 17th or 18th lateral-line
scale ............................................................. 5
5 14 pre-anal scales .................................. D. austellus
– 17–18 pre-anal scales ............................... D. lepida
6 Mouth terminal ....................................................... 7
– Mouth sub-terminal ............................................... 8
7 4½ scales between lateral-line scale row and dorsalfn
origin .................................................... D. uttara
– 5½ scales between lateral-line scale row and dorsalfn
origin .................................................... D. crassa
8 Caudal peduncle blotch not reaching caudal-fn base
........................................................... D. flamentosa
– Caudal peduncle blotch reaching caudal-fn base
................................................................... D. rohani
9 Two blotches on the body; W or M shaped blotch
below dorsal fn in addition to the elongated caudal
peduncle blotch ................................. D. exclamatio
– Three blotches on the body .................................. 10
10 Mouth sub-terminal .............................................. 11
– Mouth inferior ................................ D. srilankensis
11 Well defned blotches two scale high and three scales
wide on the body .............................. D. rubrotincta
– large diffused blotches 3–4 scales high on body ... 12
12 Small blotch on the posterior base of dorsal-fn
...................................................... D. tambraparniei
– No small blotch on the posterior base of dorsal-fn
.................................................................. D. aruliu
