Catopra tetracanthus Günther 1862

Prakash, Anjana Preetha, Raghavan, Rajeev, Dahanukar, Neelesh, Anoop, V. K., Thampy, Dencin Rons, Britz, Ralf & Ali, Anvar, 2025, Pristolepis pentacantha Plamoottil 2015, and Catopra tetracanthus Günther 1862: two junior synonyms of Pristolepis marginata Jerdon 1849, Zootaxa 5642 (3), pp. 245-259 : 254

Catopra tetracanthus Günther 1862 :

a junior synonym of Pristolepis marginata

Meristic data available in the original description of Catopra tetracanthus , along with the data provided by Britz et al. (2012), closely match those in Jerdon’s (1849) description of P. marginata ( Table. 1 ). The range in fin-ray counts of P. marginata observed in the present study is also consistent with those reported by Jerdon (1849), except for the occasional presence of five anal-fin spines, which was unknown to Jerdon (1849). When larger sample sizes of P. marginata are considered, significant variation is evident in the number of dorsal-fin rays (11–12), anal-fin rays (7–8), and anal-fin spines (4–5) ( Fig. 6 ). New data on meristics of both the species reveal they are conspecific, and that Catopra tetracanthus Günther, 1862 is a junior synonym of Pristolepis marginatus [sic] Jerdon, 1849.

Figures

FIGURE 6. Frequency distributions of meristic counts of four- and five anal-fin spined Pristolepis: DFS- Dorsal-fin spines, DFR-Dorsal-fin rays,AFS-Anal-fin spines,AFR-Anal-fin rays and PFR-Pectoral-fin rays, LL1- Dorsal lateral line, LL2- Ventral lateral line, SBLL- Scales below the lateral line and OLS-Overlapping scales.