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A new species of freshwater eel-tailed catfish of the genus Tandanus (Teleostei: Plotosidae) from coastal rivers of mid-northern New South Wales, Australia

Stuart A. Welsh·Dean R. Jerry·Damien Burrows·Meaghan L. Rourke
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Abstract

Tandanus bellingerensis , new species, is described based on specimens from four river drainages (Bellinger, Macleay, Hastings, and Manning rivers) of the mid-northern coast of New South Wales, Australia. Previously, three species were recognized in the genus Tandanus : T. tropicanus of the wet tropics region of northeast Queensland, T. tandanus of the Murray-Darling drainage and coastal streams of central-southern Queensland and New South Wales, and T. bostocki of southwestern Western Australia. The new species is distinguished from all congeners by a combination of the following morphologic characters: a high count of rays in the continuous caudodorsal and anal fins (range 153–169, mode 159), a high count of gill rakers on the first arch (range 35–39, mode 36), and strongly recurved posterior serrae of the pectoral-fin spine. Additionally, results from previously conducted genetic studies corroborate morphologic and taxonomic distinctness of the new species.

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Stuart A. Welsh, Dean R. Jerry, Damien Burrows, Meaghan L. Rourke. 2017. A new species of freshwater eel-tailed catfish of the genus Tandanus (Teleostei: Plotosidae) from coastal rivers of mid-northern New South Wales, Australia. https://doi.org/10.1643/ci-16-547

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