Record of hill stream catfish Glyptothorax telchitta (Hamilton-Buchanan, 1822) from Paschim Medinipur district, West Bengal, India

Glyptothorax telchitta (Hamilton-Buchanan, 1822) is a benthic hill-stream Sisoroid catfish that inhabits the mountain waters of the Indian Himalayas and in China, Tibet and the Sunda Islands. It is also a common hill stream catfish of the northern region of West Bengal. The present work reveals that the species is available in the Shilabati river basin, Ghatal, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal. Therefore, Glyptothorax telchitta (Hamilton-Buchanan, 1822) is a widely distributed hill stream species and extends to the lowland area of Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal, India.


Introduction
Glyptothorax Blyth, 1860, is a diverse and widely distributed genus of catfish belonging to the Sisoridae family, known from Asia Minor east and south to the Yangtze River drainage and southeast Asia (Ng and Lalramliana 2013). The genus is diagnosed as having a thoracic adhesive apparatus comprising an elliptical field of folded longitudinal pleats of skin, a detached distal portion of the premaxilla, and long thin lateral arms of the vomer that extend under the entire length of the articular process of the lateral ethmoid (De Pinna 1996). The number of 84 nominal species of Glyptothorax genus reported in Asia (Eschmeyer et al. 1998, Ng 2005, among them 67 species were treated as valid by Thomson and Page (2006). The species of the genus Glyptothorax are distributed in all mountain waters of India, both in the Himalayas, China, Tibet, and the Sunda Islands (Vinciguerra, 1890). The genus is very diverse in the Indian subcontinent, the number of 40 nominal species are reported (Ng and Lalramliana, 2013). Karmakar (2000) enlisted the distribution of 16 species of Glyptothorax in the Himalayan drainage system (Eastern Himalaya, Northeast Himalaya, Central Himalaya and Northwestern Himalaya). The number of 7 species of Glyptothorax reported from West Bengal (Moglekar 2017).
Glyptothorax telchitta (Hamilton-Buchanan, 1822) is a species of benthic Sisoroid catfish species in the hill stream. They have an adhesive organ that is present in the thoracic region. This organ is used for attachment as a life-securing device, especially for hill-stream fish. The species was originally reported from Jungipur in West Bengal and Nathpur in Uttar Pradesh, India (Hamilton, 1822), but given the taxonomic confusion regarding this species and the fact that no type material of this species is extant, Ng (2005) designated a neotype from the Hooghly River at Kalna, West Bengal, India. Glyptothorax botius was previously considered a synonym of G. telchitta (see, e.g., Menon 1999), but Ng (2005 demonstrated the distinctiveness of the two species and revalidated G. botius. The present study reveals the existence of species in the lowland area of the Shilabati river basin of Ghatal, West Bengal, India, but in very few numbers is certainly the addition of fish faunal abundance of the study area. Common name: Copper catfish, Telchitta catfish. History of species: Glyptothorax telchitta was originally described as Pimelodus telchitta Hamilton-Buchanan (1822). A brief history of the species is given below with special reference to Indian contributions.  Talwar-Jhingran 1991;Jayaram 1978, 1979, 2006, 2009and Ng 2005.

Results
Materials examined: 1 male (6.5 cm) and 1 female (7 cm (Fig. 1). Head depressed, spindle-shaped body. Barbels four pairs. The skin is prominently tuberculate, with ovoid tubercles particularly visible on the sides of the body. Complete and midlateral lateral line. Snout prominent, triangular. Mouth inferior. A shorter base of the adipose fin and a deeper caudal peduncle. The anterior and posterior nares are large and separated only by a base of the nasal barbel. Spindle-shaped thoracic adhesive organ ( Fig. 1-D), without central pit. Caudal fin forked. Morphometric data are given in Table 1. The details about fin rays are in Table 2.
Color. The lateral and dorsal surfaces of the head and body are from brown to brownish-grey. The ventral surfaces of the head and belly are yellowish. Dorsal, anal, and pair fins with spotted bands. Pectoral, pelvic, and anal fins are hyaline. The adipose fin is brownish-grey, with a hyaline distal margin. Caudal fin hyaline, with dark brown chromatophores on median fin rays of every caudal lobe, imparting the appearance of a broad dark brown band along each lobe. Barbels brownish-grey dorsally, yellowish ventrally. Habitat. They are benthopelagic and mainly live on the bottom (Bashar et al. 2009) and inhabit mainly hill streams (Talwar and Jhingran 1991).
Conservation status. According to IUCN this species has the least concern category (LC).
Abundance. Very low amount in the study area.