taxonID	type	description	language	source
013B87E305372B09D8C65163ECA5F809.taxon	biology_ecology	Mitochondrial COI sequence divergence between 11 specimens (alignment length: 597 bp) collected from various localities in the Kabini, including the type locality of Pristolepis marginata (Mananthavady) and P. pentacantha (Bavali) were in the ranges of 0 – 0.5 % (uncorrected p-distance). This included specimens matching the description of both P. marginata (D XV 12; P 15; V I 5; A IV 8; Jerdon 1849) and P. pentacantha (D XV – XVI 11; P 14; V I 5; A V 7; Plamoottil (A )), and showing the key diagnostic character of four or five anal-fin spines. Additionally, haplotype network analysis revealed the presence of two haplotypes (Fig. 3) – one of the haplotypes observed in a single individual of the five-spined Pristolepis (which we identified as P. pentacantha), and the second haplotype in the remaining 10 individuals (two individuals of five-spined, and eight individuals of four-spined Pristolepis). Three mutational steps separated these two haplotypes which translates into a genetic distance (uncorrected p-distance) of 0.5 % (Fig. 3).	en	Prakash, Anjana Preetha, Raghavan, Rajeev, Dahanukar, Neelesh, Anoop, V. K., Thampy, Dencin Rons, Britz, Ralf, Ali, Anvar (2025): Pristolepis pentacantha Plamoottil 2015, and Catopra tetracanthus Günther 1862: two junior synonyms of Pristolepis marginata Jerdon 1849. Zootaxa 5642 (3): 245-259, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5642.3.3, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5642.3.3
013B87E305312B02D8C652DBE817FB96.taxon	discussion	a junior synonym of P. marginata Plamoottil (A), and subsequently Plamoottil (B) suggested that Pristolepis pentacantha can be distinguished from P. marginata in lacking pre-orbital serrations, having fewer pre-opercular serrae, more anal-fin spines, and fewer dorsal-fin rays. An examination of fresh topotypes and museum specimens of both species, however, suggests that these characters are unreliable and do not diagnose the two taxa. For example, P. pentacantha was suggested to have 11 dorsal-fin rays (based on the holotype and single paratype) (Plamoottil (A, B )), but an examination of a fresh topotype and additional specimens (n = 6) from the same river (three representative specimens with the same genetic identity) reveals that the five-spined Pristolepis possess 11 – 12 dorsal-fin rays, a count that overlaps that in P. marginata (11 – 12; n = 23).	en	Prakash, Anjana Preetha, Raghavan, Rajeev, Dahanukar, Neelesh, Anoop, V. K., Thampy, Dencin Rons, Britz, Ralf, Ali, Anvar (2025): Pristolepis pentacantha Plamoottil 2015, and Catopra tetracanthus Günther 1862: two junior synonyms of Pristolepis marginata Jerdon 1849. Zootaxa 5642 (3): 245-259, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5642.3.3, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5642.3.3
013B87E305312B02D8C652DBE817FB96.taxon	diagnosis	Two additional characters that were used to distinguish Pristolepis pentacantha from P. marginata were the absence of preorbital serrations, and a preopercle with 5 – 6 serrae (Plamoottil (A), p. 552). It is evident that Plamoottil (A) overlooked the presence of preorbital (lachrymal) serrae, which are present in topotypic P. pentacantha as well (Fig. 4. v – vi). In addition, Plamoottil (A) also miscounted the number of pre-opercular serrae in P. marginata as 18. Topotypic and additional specimens of P. marginata have only 3 – 12 pre-opercular serrae (n = 9). Other characters and counts considered diagnostic for P. pentacantha also overlap between P. pentacantha and P. marginata (see Table 1). Analysis of the size-corrected morphometric data of P. pentacantha and P. marginata show no significant differences (PERMANOVA, F = 8757, P = 0.4429) between the two, with both species clusters overlapping in the NMDS analysis (Fig. 5), indicating that the two species cannot be distinguished based on morphometric characters. Due to the lack of diagnostic molecular or morphological characters between the four- and the five-spined Pristolepis, we synonymize Pristolepis pentacantha Plamoottil, 2015 with P. marginata Jerdon, 1849.	en	Prakash, Anjana Preetha, Raghavan, Rajeev, Dahanukar, Neelesh, Anoop, V. K., Thampy, Dencin Rons, Britz, Ralf, Ali, Anvar (2025): Pristolepis pentacantha Plamoottil 2015, and Catopra tetracanthus Günther 1862: two junior synonyms of Pristolepis marginata Jerdon 1849. Zootaxa 5642 (3): 245-259, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5642.3.3, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5642.3.3
013B87E3053C2B02D8C65160E858F89A.taxon	discussion	a junior synonym of Pristolepis marginata Meristic data available in the original description of Catopra tetracanthus, along with the data provided by Britz et al. (2012), closely match those in Jerdon’s (1849) description of P. marginata (Table. 1). The range in fin-ray counts of P. marginata observed in the present study is also consistent with those reported by Jerdon (1849), except for the occasional presence of five anal-fin spines, which was unknown to Jerdon (1849). When larger sample sizes of P. marginata are considered, significant variation is evident in the number of dorsal-fin rays (11 – 12), anal-fin rays (7 – 8), and anal-fin spines (4 – 5) (Fig. 6). New data on meristics of both the species reveal they are conspecific, and that Catopra tetracanthus Günther, 1862 is a junior synonym of Pristolepis marginatus [sic] Jerdon, 1849.	en	Prakash, Anjana Preetha, Raghavan, Rajeev, Dahanukar, Neelesh, Anoop, V. K., Thampy, Dencin Rons, Britz, Ralf, Ali, Anvar (2025): Pristolepis pentacantha Plamoottil 2015, and Catopra tetracanthus Günther 1862: two junior synonyms of Pristolepis marginata Jerdon 1849. Zootaxa 5642 (3): 245-259, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5642.3.3, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5642.3.3
013B87E3053C2B02D8C653C8E872FA0E.taxon	distribution	Jerdon (1849) listed the east-flowing Mananthavady, the west-flowing Kuttyadi and the west-flowing Kannoth Rivers as the type localities of Pristolepis marginata. Repeated sampling in Kuttyadi and Kannoth, however, resulted in the collection of Pristolepis specimens that possess only three anal-fin spines. These specimens were also genetically distinct from P. marginata specimens from Mananthavady. The specimens from Kuttyadi and Kannoth, morphologically correspond to P. malabarica Günther, 1864. We therefore conclude that P. marginata is restricted to tributaries of the east-flowing Cauvery River including the Kabini, Harangi and Hemavathy Rivers (Fig. 1).	en	Prakash, Anjana Preetha, Raghavan, Rajeev, Dahanukar, Neelesh, Anoop, V. K., Thampy, Dencin Rons, Britz, Ralf, Ali, Anvar (2025): Pristolepis pentacantha Plamoottil 2015, and Catopra tetracanthus Günther 1862: two junior synonyms of Pristolepis marginata Jerdon 1849. Zootaxa 5642 (3): 245-259, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5642.3.3, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5642.3.3
