Parosphromenus barbarae
(under construction – nov. 2021)
First describtion: July 2020 TAN HOEK HUI & JONKAR GRINANG
Vertebrate Zoology 70 (3) 349 – 356
Characteristics: Parosphromenus barbarae can be differentiated from its congeners with the following unique combination of characters: presence of faint ocellus on posterior base of dorsal-fin; presence of distinct ocellus on caudal fin base; presence of distinct three cream and
two and half dark brown stripes on body; dorsal-fin rays XI – XIV, 4 – 5 (total count 15 – 18, mode 17); anal-fin rays XI – XIII, 6 – 10 (total count 19 – 21, mode 21); lateral scales 29 – 31½ (mode 29
Male – Body and head yellowish-brown. Yellowish-brown stripe running along whole dorsum. First dark brown stripe starting at upper jaw, running to preorbital, running obliquely upwards and along dorsal half of body to upper part of caudal peduncle. Second dark brown stripe running postorbital directly behind eye to opercle edge and along mid-body to caudal-fn base. Sub-orbital area with grey pigments, forming into two broken oblique streaks to opercle area. Belly silvery gold. Dorsal fn reddish, with mid section brighter red, bright blue margin, indistinct darker red ocellus on posterior basal area. Caudal fn reddish, bright blue margin, subdistal black band with a second grey band around mid-section; distinct black ocellus at base of caudal fn. Anal fn reddish, with basal area dark grey, thin black stripe along mid-section, bright blue margin. Pelvic fns with bright blue iridescence, with two dark grey bands, one at base of flamentous ray, another at mid-section. Pectoral fn hyaline.
Female and juvenile with drab colouration. Body with two distinct dark brown stripes, frst stripe running near dorsum from top of head to caudal peduncle, second stripe running directly post-orbital to just below mid-body to caudal-fn base. Juvenile often with irregular dark brown blotches all over body, giving a mottled appearance (which is typical of this genus).
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Occurence/Distribution: The species is currently known only from one remnant peat swamp forest near Batam Kayam in Lundu near the western tip of Sarawak. It is however noted that, this swamp forest habitat has been highly modifed by planting of oil palm estates and the construction of the Pan Borneo Highway and may no longer support this species.
Threat: The threat to this species is extremely high, – it has not been caught at the original location for some years, – as this has been completely disturbed. Currently we know only of a few speciments which is in the Core Conservation Programme with high priority.
Discovery/First import: Allan & Barbara Brown (1987) conducted a labyrinth fsh (specifcally looking for Betta and Parosphromenus) survey in Sarawak. However, due to different objectives, they only kept living material that they subsequently bred in captivity. From that survey material, Parosphromenus allani had been described by Brown in 1987, and subsequently Betta brownorum was described by Witte & Schmidt in 1992. In Brown & Brown’s 1987 survey, they discovered three main populations of Parosphromenus. One population (type locality of P. allani; listed as 1/86/B&B and 17/86/B&B; basically the same general location) found along the outskirts of Sibu town, one location at 23/86/B&B (labeled as Sungei Stinggang [sic, should be Stunggang], near Lundu) and another location at 30/86/B&B (near Matang; this location is not listed with Parosphromenus, but lists a fgure of Parosphromenus from that location). Brown (1987) provided a scanty description for P. allani based on material near Sibu. Kottelat & Ng (2005) resolved the descriptions of P. allani and P. harveyi with designation of lectotypes, and described six new species. Kottelat & Ng (2005) also commented that there was possibility of other species looking similar to P. allani from southern Sarawak. This current study will follow up on the southern Sarawak population near Lundu area. This is the species deacribed as P. barbarae
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