H. fasciata exists in a number of colour forms © Hayath

Regular readers will remember that the species formerly known as Puntius fasciatus plus its closest relatives were placed into the new genus Dravidia a few months ago as part of a larger synopsis of South Asian species which had previously been placed in the genus Puntius.

Subsequent to that synopsis being published it became apparent that the name Dravida had already been applied to a genus of flesh fly from the family Sarcophagidae meaning that the fish needed a replacement name which was recently revealed in the journal ‘Zootaxa’.

The new name Haludaria has been chosen in honour of ‘Haludar, a Bengal youth’ who ca 1797 was ‘the artist who made the exquisite illustrations of “Gangetic Fishes” depicted in Francis Hamilton’s (1822) book on the fishes of the Ganges River (see Hora, 1931), a founder work in Indian ichthyology’.

Colourful adult male of H. fasciata which corresponds closely to the nominal, currently synonymous, species H. melanampyx © Steve Grant

Haludaria species are defined by the following combination of characters: size small, usually less than 60 mm SL; presence of rostral and maxillary barbels present; lateral line complete, with 18-26 pored scales on body; 4 unbranched and 8 branched dorsal-fin rays, of which the last unbranched ray is weak and smooth; 3 unbranched and 5 branched anal-fin rays; gill rakers simple, acuminate (not branched or laminate); no antrorse predorsal spinous ray; infraorbital 3 deep, partly overlapping preoperculum; free uroneural and post-epiphysial fontanelle absent; presence of one or two broad, black bars on each flank, between the bases of dorsal and anal fins.

Current member species are H. fasciata, H. kannikkatiensis and H. pradhani.

For further information see the full, open access correspondence: Pethiyagoda, R. 2013. Haludaria, a replacement generic name for Dravidia (Teleostei: Cyprinidae). Zootaxa 3646(2): 199