Pareuchiloglanis is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of catfish

Catfish

Catfishes are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest and longest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the second longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores...

es (order

Order (biology)

In scientific classification used in biology, the order is# a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, family, genus, and species, with order fitting in between class and family...

 Siluriformes) of the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Sisoridae

Sisoridae

Sisoridae is a family of catfishes . These Asian catfish live in fast-moving waters and often have adaptations that allow them to adhere to objects in their habitat.-Taxonomy:...

. It includes twenty species.

Taxonomy

The monophyly

Monophyly

In common cladistic usage, a monophyletic group is a taxon which forms a clade, meaning that it contains all the descendants of the possibly hypothetical closest common ancestor of the members of the group. The term is synonymous with the uncommon term holophyly...

 of this genus remains doubtful. In 2007, a study rejected the monophyly of this genus.

The premaxilla

Premaxilla

The incisive bone is the portion of the maxilla adjacent to the incisors. It is a pair of small cranial bones at the very tip of the jaws of many animals, usually bearing teeth, but not always. They are connected to the maxilla and the nasals....

ry tooth bands in the catfish tribe Glyptosternina are important in identifying genera; in Pareuchiloglanis, the tooth band is divided into two patches, appearing in two types. In one type, the premaxillary tooth patches appear separate, divided down the middle by a deeper indentation; this type is characteristic of P. kamengensis, P. feae, P. macropterus, and P. gongshanensis. This group is distributed in and to the west of the Lancangjiang River and overlaps the distribution of Oreoglanis

Oreoglanis

Oreoglanis is a genus of catfishes of the family Sisoridae.-Taxonomy:The taxonomy of this group is currently under discussion and changes seem inevitable as the group is suspected to be non-monophyletic....

, Pseudexostoma

Pseudexostoma

Pseudexostoma is a genus of catfishes of the family Sisoridae. It includes three species, P. brachysoma, P. longipterus, and P. yunnanensis.-Taxonomy:...

and Exostoma

Exostoma

Exostoma is a genus of catfishes of the family Sisoridae. It includes four species that E. berdmorei, E. labiatum, E. stuarti, and E. vinciguerrae.-Taxonomy:...

. In the other type, the premaxillary tooth patches appear to be joined with a shallow indentation in the middle; this type is characteristic of all other species of Pareuchiloglanis. This group is distributed in and to the east of the Lancangjiang.

Distribution and habitat

Pareuchiloglanis species are rheophilic

Rheophile

A rheophile is an organism that prefers to live in fast moving water.-Insects:*Many aquatic insects living in riffles require current to survive.*Epeorus sylvicola, a rheophilic mayfly species .-Fish:...

 catfish chiefly found in the headwaters of major rivers in South and East Asia. They originate from the Brahmaputra

Brahmaputra River

The Brahmaputra , also called Tsangpo-Brahmaputra, is a trans-boundary river and one of the major rivers of Asia. It is the only Indian river that is attributed the masculine gender and thus referred to as a in Indo-Aryan languages and languages with Indo-Aryan influence...

 drainage in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, east and south to the Yangtze

Yangtze River

The Yangtze, Yangzi or Cháng Jiāng is the longest river in Asia, and the third-longest in the world. It flows for from the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai eastward across southwest, central and eastern China before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai. It is also one of the...

 drainage in China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 and the Annamese Cordillera drainages in southern Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

. Three species are known from the Mekong River: P. kamengensis, P. myzostoma, and P. gracilicaudata. Five species are known from the Lancangjiang drainage of China: P. abbreviatus, P. gracilicaudata, P. kamengensis, P. myzostoma, and P. prolixdorsalis.

Description

Pareuchiloglanis species have an interrupted groove behind their lips (post-labial groove), gill

Gill

A gill is a respiratory organ found in many aquatic organisms that extracts dissolved oxygen from water, afterward excreting carbon dioxide. The gills of some species such as hermit crabs have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are kept moist...

 openings not extending onto the underside (venter), homodont dentition of pointed teeth in both jaws, tooth patches in the upper jaw joined into a band and not produced posteriorly at sides, and 13–16 branched pectoral rays. The head is depressed and the body is elongate and depressed anteriorly. The skin is smooth dorsally,
but it is often tuberculate

Tubercle

A tubercle is generally a wart-like projection, but it has slightly different meaning depending on which family of plants or animals it is used to refer to....

 ventrally. The eyes are minute, dorsal, and under the skin (subcutaneous). The lips are thick, fleshy, and papilla

Papilla (fish mouth structure)

The papilla, in certain kinds of fish, particularly rays, sharks, and catfish, are small lumps of dermal tissue found in the mouth, where they are "distributed uniformly on the tongue, palate, and pharynx"...

ted. The paired fins are plait

Plait

A plait may refer to:* Plait, also called a braid, intertwined strands of, for example, textile or hair* Plait, now called a pleat, a fold of fabric, used in clothing and upholstery* Plait , a fold in the columella of a gastropod mollusc...

ed to form an adhesive apparatus.