Synonyms:

Nemacheilus laterivittatus Zhu & Wang, 1985

original description; misspelled as Noemacheilus

Schistura caudofurca (Mai, 1978)

misidentification

Vernacular names:

侧带南挻, 側帶南揳

Mandarin

Etymology:

The generic name ‘schistura’ is a compound of two Greek words; ‘skhizeîn’: to split, ‘oura’: tail; an allusion to a forked caudal fin; gender: feminine.

The specific epithet ‘laterivittata’ is a compound of the Latin word ‘lateralis’, which means ‘belonging to the sides/flanks’ and the Latin word ‘vittatus’, which means ‘barred’; a participle, which has to agree in gender to the generic name. 

Size / Weight:

52-80.5 mm SL, 20 samples, Babianjiang River, Jingdong County, Yunnan Province, China (Zhu, 1989).

Up to 81 mm SL (for S. caudofurca, Nam Ma, Nam Xam, Nam Mat, Laos [see remarks]; Kottelat, 2001a).

80.2 mm SL, 95.3 mm TL, EPC 0550, largest specimen of collection, Mengyejiang River, Puer County, Yunnan Province, China. 

Diagnosis:

D III,8-9 (9 soft rays as an exemption); A III,5; P I,9; V I,6-7; C 17, prominent deep V-shaped incision in lower lip (Zhu, 1989).

Coloration:

Largest specimen in collection (EPC 0550, 80.2 mm SL) with distinct coloration; anterior part of body until mid of dorsal grey, abdomen in light grey, dorsum dark grey; posterior part of body with a faint remaining longitudinal stripe and irregular, dark grey blotches along the dorsal line and horizontal midline.

Sex differentiation:

No sexual dichromatism and dimorphism.

Distribution:

The terra typica is referenced as Babianjiang River, 24°20'N, 100°10'E, Jingdong County, Yunnan Province, China (Zhu & Wang, 1985).

In the riffle section of EW-CN 66-09 (Mengyejiang River 勐野江, tributary to Lixianjiang River李仙江, Red River 红河 basin, Yunnan Province, China) syntop with Schistura callichromus, another not yet identified nemacheilid and further rheophilic species. For biotope details see S. callichromus (ME, 2009-12-30, 2010-01-06).

Expected to occur in the Red River basin in Vietnam (Kottelat, 2001).

Ecology:

For ecology see data at Schistura callichromus.

Conservation status:

IUCN Red List not evaluated.

Aquarium maintenance:

Riverine environment to be simulated; round rocks and boulders with smooth surfaces on gravel bottom to provide shelters; moderate to high current; broad leafed water plants only if withstand the current, for e.g. Anubias spp. and Javafern.

Massive feeding with Tubifex to be avoided.

Remarks:

Schistura laterivittata has been misidentified as S. caudofurca (Kottelat, 2001). Kottelat states that the original description of Barbatula (now placed in Schistura) caudofurca is informative, but the supplemented figure shows a fish with similar color pattern than S. laterivittata. Hence, he placed S. laterivittata in the synonymy of S. caudofurca. This has been widely adopted and accepted by plenty of sources.

In fact, S. caudofurca is a distinct taxon. The original description compiled by Vietnamese ichthyologist Mai in 1978 is short but contains several key characteristics to distinguish both taxa; in S. caudofurca plevic fin reaching anal fin (vs. not reaching anal fin in S. laterivittata); caudal fin forked to half of its length (vs. not forked but deeply emarginated in S. laterivittata). Besides, S. laterivittata possesses a broad longitudinal stripe (faint in some specimens) commencing behind the operculum reaching the caudobasal mark (vs. absence of longitudinal stripe in S. caudofurca in accordance to its original description).