Botia Gray

Maurice Kottelat, 2004, Botia kubotai, a new species of loach (Teleostei: Cobitidae) from the Ataran River basin (Myanmar), with comments on botiine nomenclature and diagnosis of a new genus., Zootaxa 401, pp. 1-18 : 2

[[ Genus Botia Gray ]]

I describe here a new, uniquely patterned species of the genus Botia . Botiine loaches usually inhabit swift, clear, and well oxygenated waters and prefer a stony substrate. Most species have a vivid or strikingly patterned body. Many species are quite similar morphologically, but their colour pattern is usually conspicuously diagnostic. Use of the colour pattern for diagnostic purposes, however, is not always straightforward as it may show dramatic changes with growth (see, e.g., Kottelat, 1998).