A new website launched by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service this week aims to provide publically-viewable information about endangered species in the country and looks set to become a valuable resource for scientists, conservation managers, and non-professionals alike.

Continue reading »

Members of the family  Phallostethidae are small freshwater fishes native to Southeast Asia and included in the order Atheriniformes so related to rainbowfishes and ricefishes, among others.

They’re not popular aquarium fishes, but have an interesting reproductive strategy whereby males are equipped with a unique apparatus known as the priapium which is located on the underside of the head and used for clasping a female while simultaneously entering the body cavity and fertilising eggs internally. The female subsequently lays fully-fertilised eggs rather than giving birth to live young.

Freshly collected male (above) and female specimens of P. cuulong. © L. X. Tran

Continue reading »

A new ‘tiger barb’, Systomus navjotsodhii, is described by prominent ichthyologist Dr. Heok Hui Tan in the latest supplement of the Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, the specific name chosen in honour of the late Professor Navjot S. Sodhi.

Live individual of Systomus navjotsodhii. © Heok Hui Tan

Continue reading »