Glyptothorax Blyth, 1860

Alfred W. Thomson & Lawrence M. Page, 2006, Genera of the Asian Catfish Families Sisoridae and Erethistidae (Teleostei: Siluriformes)., Zootaxa 1345, pp. 1-96 : 40-42

Glyptothorax Blyth, 1860

Fig. 14

Glyptothorax Blyth, 1860 : 154. (Type species: Glyptosternon striatus McClelland, 1842 , by subsequent designation by Bleeker (1863: 105). Gender masculine.

Aglyptosternon Bleeker, 1862 (in Bleeker, 1862-63): 12. (Type species: Silurus cous Linnaeus, 1766 , by original designation). Gender neuter. Silurus cous , the type species of Aglyptosternon , was placed in the genus Glyptothorax by Coad (1979). Li (1986) listed Aglyptosternon Bleeker, 1862 in the synonymy of Glyptothorax .

Euclyptosternum Guenther, 1864 : 183. (Type species: Silurus cous Linnaeus, 1766 , apparently an unjustified emendation of Aglyptosternon Bleeker, 1862 , which Günther spelled as Aclyptosternon ). Gender neuter. Hora (1923b) synonymized Euclyptosternum Guenther, 1864 with Glyptothorax but did not consider it to be the same as Aglyptosternon Bleeker, 1862 .

Pteroglanis Fowler, 1934a : 92. (Type species: Pteroglanis horai Fowler, 1934 , by original designation. Preoccupied by Pteroglanis Eigenmann & Pearson, 1924 , in fishes, replaced by Pteropsoglanis Fowler, 1934 ). Gender masculine.

Pteropsoglanis Fowler, 1934b : 351. (Type species: Pteroglanis horai Fowler, 1934 , by being a replacement name. Replacement name for Pteroglanis Fowler, 1934 ; preoccupied by Pteroglanis Eigenmann & Pearson, 1924 , in fishes). Gender masculine. Li (1986) listed Pteroglanis Fowler, 1934 in the synonymy of Glyptothorax . Ferraris & Britz (2005) placed Pteroglanis horai , the type species of Pteropsoglanis in the genus Glyptothorax .

Sundagagata Boeseman, 1966 : 243. (Type species: Sundagagata robusta Boeseman, 1966 , by original designation). Gender feminine. Kottelat et al. (1993) considered Sundagagata robusta to be based on an abnormal specimen of Glyptothorax platypogon and the genus Sundagagata to be a synonym of Glyptothorax .

Paraglyptothorax Li, 1986 : 524. (Type species: Glyptosternum pallozonum Lin, 1934 , by original designation. Originally proposed as a subgenus of Glyptothorax ). Gender masculine.

Superglyptothorax Li, 1986 : 524. (Type species: Glyptothorax coheni Ganguly, Datta & Sen, 1972 , by original designation. Originally proposed as a subgenus of Glyptothorax ). Gender masculine.

Diagnosis: Thoracic adhesive apparatus with grooves parallel or oblique to longitudinal axis of body (vs. grooves transverse to longitudinal axis of body or thoracic adhesive apparatus absent).

Glyptothorax is distinguished from all other sisorid genera by having an adhesive apparatus on the thorax with with grooves parallel or oblique to the longitudinal axis of the body (vs. thoracic adhesive grooves transverse to the longitudinal axis of the body in Pseudecheneis , and thoracic adhesive apparatus absent in all other genera).

Description: Dorsal fin with strong spine, 5-7 rays; pectoral fin with strong spine, 6-11 rays; 6 pelvic-fin rays, 7-14 anal-fin rays. Head small, depressed; snout conical; body elongate, moderately or greatly depressed. Skin smooth or tuberculate. Eyes small, dorsal. Lips thick, fleshy, often papillate. Teeth villiform, in bands; palatal teeth present or absent. Maxillary barbel with well-developed membrane, soft base. Gill openings wide, branchiostegal membranes narrowly connected with isthmus. Coracoid very short, extends at most barely past pectoral-fin base, often not visible externally. Pectoral-fin spine serrated anteriorly. Dorsal-fin spine smooth or serrate on anterior edge, smooth or finely serrated on posterior edge. Thoracic adhesive apparatus present, groves parallel or oblique to longitudinal axis of body. Paired fins plaited and modified to form an adhesive apparatus (Fig. 15), or non-plaited.

Distribution: Black Sea basin, northern Turkey, south and east to the Yangtze River drainage in China and south throughout Indo-China to Java, Indonesia (Coad & Delmastro, 1985; Chu et al., 1999; Ng, 2005a)