Puntius

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: Cyprinoidei

Familia: Cyprinidae
Subfamilia: Smiliogastrinae
Genus Puntius
Species: P. ambassis – P. amphibius – P. arenatus – P. bimaculatus – P. brevis – P. burmanicus – P. cauveriensis – P. chola – P. crescentus – P. deccanensis – P. dolichopterus – P. dorsalis – P. euspilurus – P. fraseri – P. kamalika – P. kelumi – P. khohi – P. kyphus – P. layardi – P. madhusoodani – P. mahecola – P. masyai – P. melanostigma – P. mudumalaiensis – P. muzaffarpurensis – P. nangalensis – P. nigronotus – P. ocellus – P. parrah – P. paucimaculatus – P. pugio – P. punjabensis – P. sanctus – P. snyderi – P. sophore – P. sophoroides – P. stigma – P. terio – P. thermalis – P. titteya – P. viridis – P. vittatus – P. waageni
Name

Puntius Hamilton, 1822: 310, 388

Type species: Cyprinus sophore Hamilton, 1822. Type by subsequent designation. Type designated by Bleeker, 1863: 27
Synonyms

Mandibularca Herre, 1924

References

Hamilton, F. 1822: An account of the fishes found in the river Ganges and its branches. Edinburgh & London: i-vii + 1-405, Pls. 1-39.
Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2007.FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version (05/2007). [1]
Pethiyagoda, R., Meegaskumbura, M. & Maduwage, K. 2012. A synopsis of the South Asian fishes referred to Puntius (Pisces: Cyprinidae). Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters 23(1): 69–95. PDF Reference page.
ZooBank
Rema Devi, K. , T.J. Indra & J.D.M. Knight, 2010: Puntius rohani (Teleostei: Cyprinidae), a new species of barb in the Puntius filamentosus group from the southern Western Ghats of India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 2 (9): 1121–1129. Full article: [2].

Vernacular names
English: Spotted barbs
ไทย: สกุลพุนชัส

Puntius is a genus of small freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae native to South Asia and Mainland Southeast Asia, as well as Taiwan.[1]

Many species formerly placed in Puntius have been moved to other genera such as Barbodes, Dawkinsia, Desmopuntius, Haludaria, Oliotius, Pethia, Puntigrus, Sahyadria and Systomus.[2][3][4]

Previously, it was assumed that the earliest record of this genus was the fossil species Puntius bussyi from the Eocene of Sumatra, but a 2020 study reclassified this species into the new genus Pauciuncus, possibly in the subfamily Smiliogastrinae.[5]
Etymology
Puti maach (Puntius fish) in West Bengal, India.

The name Puntius comes from Pungti (Pronounced Puti), a Bangla term for small cyprinids.
Range

Fishes of the genus Puntius are found in South Asia (west to Pakistan and south to Sri Lanka) and Mainland Southeast Asia, with a single species, P. snyderi, in Taiwan.[1][2] The greatest species richness is in India.[1]
Description
Puntius of West Bengal, India
Cherry barb (Puntius titteya), male below and female above.

The maximum size for an adult of this genus is 25 cm (10 in), but most species reach 7–15 cm (2.8–5.9 in) and some species do not surpass 5 cm (2 in).[1] In appearance they may resemble miniature carp and are sometimes brightly coloured or patterned.[1]
Behavior

These fishes are omnivorous; their diet includes small invertebrates and plant matter. Breeding is by egg scattering and takes place close to the bottom, near or within areas of dense plant growth. They do not show parental care and adults may eat the young.
Taxonomy

Historically, many species of Puntius have been classified in several genera, including Barbus. Despite the reclassifications, the specific epithet remains the same in these – except in cases of homonymies – as Barbus and Puntius have the same grammatical gender. The closest living relatives of the spotted barbs are the genus Cyprinion and perhaps the genus Capoeta. These and the other "typical" barbs and barbels were formerly often separated as subfamily Barbinae, but this group is highly paraphyletic with regard to the Cyprininae and better merged there at least for the largest part (including Puntius). In particular the genus Barbonymus, containing the tinfoil barb and its relatives – for some time included in Puntius – appears to be a kind of carp that has evolved convergently with barbs.
Species

These are the currently recognized species in this genus:

Puntius ambassis (F. Day, 1869)
Puntius amphibius (Valenciennes, 1842) (Scarlet-banded barb)
Puntius aphya (Günther, 1868)
Puntius arenatus (F. Day, 1878) (Arenatus barb)
Puntius bimaculatus (Bleeker, 1863) (Redside barb)
Puntius bramoides (Valenciennes, 1842)
Puntius brevis (Bleeker, 1849)
Puntius burmanicus (F. Day, 1878)
Puntius cauveriensis (Hora, 1937) (Cauvery barb)
Puntius chola (F. Hamilton, 1822) (Swamp barb)
Puntius crescentus G. M. Yazdani & D. F. Singh, 1994
Puntius deccanensis G. M. Yazdani & M. Babu Rao, 1976 (Deccan barb)
Puntius dolichopterus Plamoottil, 2015 (Longfin Kerala barb)
Puntius dorsalis (Jerdon, 1849) (Long-snouted barb)
Puntius euspilurus Plamoottil 2016
Puntius fraseri (Hora & Misra, 1938) (Dharna barb)
Puntius kamalika N. K. A. Silva, Maduwage & Pethiyagoda, 2008
Puntius kelumi Pethiyagoda, N. K. A. Silva, Maduwage & Meegaskumbura, 2008
Puntius khohi Dobriyal, R. Singh, S. P. Uniyal, H. K. Joshi, S. Phurailatpam & M. S. Bisht, 2004
Puntius kyphus Plamootitl, 2019
Puntius layardi (Günther, 1868)
Puntius madhusoodani Krishna Kumar, Benno Pereira & Radhakrishnan, 2012 [6]
Puntius mahecola (Valenciennes, 1844) (Mahecola barb)
Puntius masyai H. M. Smith, 1945
Puntius melanostigma F. Day, 1878
Puntius morehensis Arunkumar & Tombi Singh, 1998
Puntius mudumalaiensis Menon & Rema Devi, 1992
Puntius muzaffarpurensis Srivastava, K. P. Verma & R. B. Sharma, 1977
Puntius nangalensis Jayaram, 1990
Puntius nelsoni Plamoottil, 2014 (Travancore yellow barb)
Puntius nigronotus Plamoottil, 2014 [7] (Malabar black-backed barb)
Puntius ocellus Plamoottil & Vineeth, 2020[8]
Puntius parrah F. Day, 1865 (Parrah barb)
Puntius paucimaculatus Y. H. Wang & Y. Ni, 1982
Puntius pugio S. O. Kullander, 2008
Puntius punjabensis (F. Day, 1871)
Puntius puntio (F. Hamilton, 1822) (Puntio barb)
Puntius sahyadriensis Silas, 1953 (Khavli barb)
Puntius sanctus Plamoottil 2020
Puntius sealei (Herre, 1933)
Puntius somphongsi (Benl & Klausewitz, 1962)
Puntius sophore (F. Hamilton, 1822) (Pool barb)
Puntius sophoroides (Günther, 1868)
Puntius spilopterus (Fowler, 1934)
Puntius takhoaensis Nguyen & Doan, 1969)
Puntius terio (F. Hamilton, 1822) (Onespot barb)
Puntius tetraspilus Günther, 1868)
Puntius thermalis Valenciennes, 1844)
Puntius titteya Deraniyagala, 1929 (Cherry barb)
Puntius viridis Plamoottil & Abraham, 2014 [9] (Spotfin green barb)
Puntius vittatus F. Day, 1865 (Greenstripe barb)
Puntius waageni (F. Day, 1872)

References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Puntius.

Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2016). Species of Puntius in FishBase. June 2016 version.
Kottelat, M. (2013): 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. Archived 2015-01-06 at the Wayback Machine Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, Suppl. No. 27: 1–663.
Pethiyagoda, R., Meegaskumbura, M. & Maduwage, K. (2012): A synopsis of the South Asian fishes referred to Puntius (Pisces: Cyprinidae). Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 23 (1): 69–95.
Raghavan, R., Philip, S., Ali, A. & Dahanukar, N. (2013): Sahyadria, a new genus of barbs (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) from Western Ghats of India. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 5 (15): 4932–4938.
Murray, Alison M. (2020-01-02). "Early Cenozoic Cyprinoids (Ostariophysi: Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae and Danionidae) from Sumatra, Indonesia". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 40 (1): e1762627. doi:10.1080/02724634.2020.1762627. ISSN 0272-4634.
Krishna Kumar, K., Benno Pereira, F.G. & Radhakrishnan, K.V. (2012): Puntius madhusoodani (Teleostei: Cyprinidae), a new species of barb from Manimala River, Kerala, South India. Biosystematica, 5 (2): 31-37.
Plamoottil, M. (2014): Puntius nigronotus, a new fish species (Cypriniformes; Cyprinidae) from Kerala, India. Journal of Research in Biology, 4 (8): 1581–1588.
Egypt. Acad. J. Biolog. Sci. (B. Zoology) Vol. 12(2) pp: 93-102(2020)
Plamoottil, M. & Abraham, N.P. (2014): Puntius viridis (Cypriniformes, Cyprinidae), a new fish species from Kerala, India. Journal of Research in Biology, 3 (7): 1093–1104.