Genus Phractura Boulenger

Phractura are slender, firm-bodied doumeine catfishes with bilateral ridges of bony platelets or scutes formed by expansions of vertebral flanges, along the body. Trachyglanis and Belonoglanis are other doumeine genera with similar ridges of bony plates but these genera have a series over the lateral abdomen in advance of the pelvic fins; Phractura does not have a series over the abdomen before the pelvic fins. In Doumea there are no series of bony scutes on the surface of the body. The head of Phractura species is usually short with bony ridges and the caudal peduncle is long, slender and bony. Three described species are recognized from WCA (P. brevicauda, P. longicauda and P. gladysae) and one species from the Nyanga River in Gabon, is described below as new.