Pterocryptis Peters

[[Pterocryptis Peters]]

Catfishes of the genus Pterocryptis Peters, 1861, are medium sized members of the Siluridae usually found in fast flowing mountain streams throughout India, southern China and Southeast Asia. Pterocryptis had been considered a junior synonym of Silurus Linnaeus, 1758, until its rediagnosis by Bornbusch (1991). There are 16 nominal species of Pterocryptis (see Ng & Freyhof, 2001). Of these, only P. cochinchinensis (Valenciennes, 1839), P. anomala (Herre, 1933) and P. gilberti (Hora, 1938) have been reported from China. Recent work by Ng & Freyhof (2001) suggests that P. cochinchinensis is restricted to central Vietnam. This prompted us to examine Pterocryptis from southern China with the objective of clarifying its taxonomic status. Our results show that P. cochinchinensis also occurs on Hainan Island (off the southeastern coast of China) and that material from southern China and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region represent a distinct species for which the name P. anomala is available. We therefore redescribe P. anomala as a valid species in this study, and treat P. gilberti as its junior synonym.