Balitoropsis

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Megaclassis: Osteichthyes
Superclassis/Classis: Actinopterygii
Classis/Subclassis: Actinopteri
Subclassis/Infraclassis: Neopterygii
Infraclassis: Teleostei
Megacohors: Osteoglossocephalai
Supercohors: Clupeocephala
Cohors: Otomorpha
Subcohors: Ostariophysi
Sectio: Otophysa
Ordo: Cypriniformes
Subordo: Cobitoidei
Familia: Balitoridae
Genus: Balitoropsis
Species: B. ophiolepis – B. zollingeri
Name

Balitoropsis Smith, 1945

Type species: Balitoropsis bartschi Smith, 1945

Etymology: opsis (= appearance), allusion not explained, presumably referring to resemblance to Balitora.
References

Randall, Z.S. & Page, L.M. 2015. On the paraphyly of Homaloptera (Teleostei: Balitoridae) and description of a new genus of hillstream loaches from the Western Ghats of India. Zootaxa 3926(1): 57–86. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3926.1.2. Reference page.
Smith, H.M. 1945. The fresh-water fishes of Siam, or Thailand. Bulletin of the United States National Museum 188: i–xi + 1–622, Pls. 1–9. Reference page.

Balitoropsis also known as the lizard loaches is a genus of hillstream loaches native to eastern Asia.
Species

There are currently 2 recognized species in this genus:[2]

Balitoropsis ophiolepis (Bleeker, 1853) (slender lizard loach)
Balitoropsis zollingeri (Bleeker, 1853) (black lizard loach)

Species which were once classified in this genus,[3] but are now classified in other genera[4] include:

In Homalopteroides Fowler, 1905:
Homalopteroides stephensoni (Hora, 1923)
Homalopteroides yuwonoi (Kottelat, 1998)
In Pseudohomaloptera Silas, 1953:
Pseudohomaloptera batek (Tan, 2009)
Pseudohomaloptera leonardi (Hora, 1941)
Pseudohomaloptera sexmaculata (Fowler, 1934)
Pseudohomaloptera tatereganii (Popta, 1905)
Pseudohomaloptera vulgaris (Kottelat & Chu, 1998)
Pseudohomaloptera yunnanensis (Chen, 1978)

References

Smith, Hugh M. (1945). "Balitoropsis, new genus". The Fresh-water Fishes of Siam, or Thailand. Bulletin of the United States National Museum. Vol. 188. pp. 278–280. doi:10.5479/si.03629236.188.1.
Randall, Z.S. & Riggs, P.A. (2015). "Revision of the hillstream lizard loaches, genus Balitoropsis (Cypriniformes: Balitoridae)" (PDF). Zootaxa. 3962 (1): 206–225. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3962.1.13. PMID 26249387.
Kottelat, Maurice (2012). "Balitoropsis Smith, 1945". Conspectus Cobitidum: An Inventory of the Loaches of the World (Teleostei: Cypriniformes: Cobitoidei). The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology: Supplement. Vol. 26. Singapore: Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore. pp. 45–47.

Randall, Zachary S.; Page, Lawrence M. (2015). "On the paraphyly of Homaloptera (Teleostei: Balitoridae) and description of a new genus of hillstream loaches from the Western Ghats of India". Zootaxa. 3926 (1): 57–86. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3926.1.2. PMID 25781768.

Further reading
Kottelat, Maurice (2013). "Balitoropsis Smith, 1945". The Fishes of the Inland Waters of Southeast Asia: A Catalogue and Core Bibliography of the Fishes Known to Occur in Freshwaters, Mangroves and Estuaries. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology: Supplement. Vol. 27. Singapore: Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore. p. 186.[