''Indoreonectes evezardi'' is a species of

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

in the family

Nemacheilidae The Nemacheilidae, or stone loaches, are a family of cypriniform fishes that inhabit stream environments, mostly in Eurasia, with one genus, ''Afronemacheilus'' found in Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous ...

. Earlier it was known as ''Nemacheilus evezardi'' described by Day (1878) captured from a river stream near

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, found in the Western Ghats and the Satpuras. Most populations are found in normal streams, but two distinct cave-adapted forms exist in Kotumsar Cave.

Etymology

The fish is named in honor of Col. George C. Evezard (1826-1901), of the

Bombay Staff Corps The Indian Staff Corps was a branch of the Indian Army during the British Raj. Separate Staff Corps were formed in 1861 for the Bengal, Madras and Bombay Armies, which were later combined into the Indian Army. They were meant to provide officers f ...

, who helped in procuring the type specimen.

Divergence of cave populations

Due to lack of light and limited source of energy input (food) the cave populations of ''Indoreonectes evezardi'' are either found in albinic form with very regressed eyes or with very limited pigmentation and small eyes while compared to its epigean counterparts. Due to subterranean mode of life the complete physiological activities of the cave forms get limited and/or altere

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271508541_Constructive_evolution_phylogenetic_age_related_visual_sensibility_in_the_hypogean_fish_on_Kotumsar_Cave?ev=prf_pub].

IUCN status

Though in

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

(IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, this particular species is designated in

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

(LR/lc)category, but it could not be ruled out that special attention is required to protect the cave forms of ''Indoreonectes evezardi''.

References

Biswas J. 1991
Metabolic efficiency and regulation of body weight: a comparison between life in hypogean and epigean ecosystems
Biswas J. 1993
Constructive evolution: phylogenetic age related visual sensibility in the hypogean fish on Kotumsar Cave *
Biswas J. 2010
Kotumsar Cave biodiversity: a review of cavernicoles and their troglobiotic traits evezardi Fish of India Fish of Asia Cave fish Taxa named by Francis Day Fish described in 1872 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Nemacheilidae-stub