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Abstract
IN 1867 Dr. Francis Day described a small loach from Madras as Platacanthus
maculatus, with a characteristic long dorsal fin composed of 30 rays. However, the
type of the genus Platacanthus Day (1865), namely, P. agrensis Day is a synonym of
Lepidocephalus thermalis (Valenciennes), which is characterised by a very short dorsal
fin with only 9 rays. This naturally restricted Platacanthus Day to the synonymy
oi Lepidocephalus Bleeker and hence Day (1870) proposed the generic name Jerdonia
to accommodate the second species Platacanthus maculatus, defining the genus as
' Body elongated. Barbels eight, one rostral, two maxillary and one mandibular
pairs. A free bifurcated suborbital spine. Dorsal fin elongated (thirty rays). Internal
pectoral rays osseous. Origin of anal slightly posterior to the termination
of the dorsal.'
Unfortunately, the name Jerdonia is preoccupied in Malacology (Blandford,
1861), and in Ornithology (Hume, 1870), a situation of which Day himself was
probably aware of, as in his monographic series on Indian Cyprinidae (Day, 1872 :
179) in a foot-note under the genus Jerdonia there appears an editorial comment
that ' This name has been also applied in concology and Ornithology.' Hence,
in accordance with the Rules of Zoological Nomenclature, Whitley (1931) proposed
the name Enobarbichthys to replace Jerdonia Day, with Platacanthus maculatus
Day as the type, and thus far the genus is monotypic.
Besides Day's account of this loach based on a single specimen, nothing more
is known about it. Hence it is felt desirable to record here some additional data I
was able to gather by re-examining the holotype in the collection of the British
Museum (Natural History) in September 1956
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