Pseudomystus

Heok Hee Ng & Kelvin K. P. Lim, 2005, The identity of Pseudomystus moeschii (Boulenger, 1890), with the description of two new species of bagrid catfishes from Southeast Asia (Teleostei: Bagridae)., Zootaxa 851, pp. 1-18 : 1-2

[[ Genus Pseudomystus ]]

Pseudomystus species are small- to mid-sized bagrid catfishes that inhabit swamps, streams and rivers throughout Southeast Asia. There are currently 14 valid species of Pseudomystus (Kottelat et al., 1993; Kottelat, 2000; Ng & Rachmatika, 2000); many of them have a color pattern of contrasting vertical bars or blotches, which makes them attractive fishes for the aquarium trade (where they are known as bumblebee catfishes).

Members of the genus were traditionally included in Leiocassis , but Mo (1991) found the following synapomorphies that diagnosed them as distinct from Leiocassis s. str.: the loss or reduction (to a small hole enclosed entirely within the supraoccipital) of the posterior fontanelle, cranial elements largely exposed on the roof, the senory canal in the pterotic excluded from the extrascapular and hypertrophied nuchal plates.

As part of a larger revisionary study of the genus by the authors, material from Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula identified as Pseudomystus moeschii (Boulenger, 1890) were examined and it was found that this material represented two distinct species in addition to P. moeschii . The redescription of P. moeschii (with the designation of a lectotype) and the descriptions of these two species as P. carnosus sp. nov. and P. fumosus sp. nov. form the basis of this study.