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Hello,

Was just wondering if the following species from Olyra are considered valid or have become junior synonyms.

Olyra burmanicus (Day 1872), Olyra horai (Prashad & Mukerji 1929), Olyra kempi (Chaudhuri 1912),


I have seen a picture of the O.Horai in the book Ornamental Aquarium Fish of India. No other info seems to be available on these species.

Catalog of fishes lists them as valid. So do ITIS and Fishbase.

GBIF has some info on collected specimens.

Hey Mike,

Thanks for pointing out the links. Guess I didn search enough after all. I got curious as soon as I saw the picture of the O.Horai and it looked like quite a beauty.

My pleasure. I had never heard about Olyra, so when I saw your post I started searching and also found a picture of a very interesting fish:
http://www.mkbasia.com/wild/longfighting_catfish.jpg

The name "Longfighting Catfish" makes me wonder if maybe they have a bad attitude, though.

The name "Longfighting Catfish" makes me wonder if maybe they have a bad attitude, though.

They are very intolerant of conspecifics, hence their name.

That seems a particularly elongate species compared to the "fighting catfish" that wildwoods had when Mats, Chrysichthys & I were last there - body shape vaguely reminiscent of brachyrhamdia but plain brown.

The fish in the link Mike has given is a O.Longicaudata????

Olyra species are very difficult to distinguish externally anyway. I looked at specimens collected from western Thailand (thinking that they would almost certainly be an undescribed species and different from the Indian ones) and could not distinguish them from O. longicaudata from northeastern India and Bangladesh.

Thanks for the clarification HH. I thought the O.Horai has a deeper colouration (almost black) overall when compared to the O.Longicaudata. This of course is based only on pictures I have seen in the book.

A little doubt regarding compatibility of Olyra and so I thought Il post it here instead of opening a new thread.

An O.Longicaudata is on its way to my tanks in the next few days. I was wondering if it is compatible with a pair of H.Fossilis (3 Inches) I have or is it likely to mistake them for congeners???

No reason why this shouldn't work.

Cool HH. Thanks.

Are there any recent papers on this genus??? The only litreature I have currently is Day's Freshwater Siluroids of India and Hora's Fish from the E.Himalayas.

Just Ferraris 2007
I have copied the portion of his paper dealing with Olyra below.
-Shane

OLYRA M’Clelland, 1842
Olyra M’Clelland, 1842: 588. Type species: Olyra longicaudata M’Clelland, 1842. Type by subsequent designation,
by Gill (1861c: 51). Gender: Feminine.
Review: Hora (1936a).

Olyra burmanica Day, 1872
Olyra burmanica Day, 1872: 711. Type locality: Pegu Yomas, Burma. Lectotype: AMS B.7560; designated by
Jayaram (1980: 19).
Distribution: Pegu Yomas; known only from type (Jayaram, 1980).

Olyra horae (Prashad & Mukerji, 1929)
Amblyceps horae Prashad & Mukerji, 1929: 173, pl. 7 (fig. 1). Type locality: Indawgyi Lake along its w. shore near
Loimon village, Myitkyina District, Upper Burma. Holotype: ZSI F10854/1.
Distribution: Meghalaya, India, and Indawgyi Lake, Myanmar (Jayaram, 1980).
Remarks: Name appears as Olyra horai in recent literature, which reflects an attempt to correct the suffix to the
name to the masculine form. However, the original spelling is also an acceptable form and the subsequent spelling
should be regarded as a misspelling.

Olyra kempi Chaudhuri, 1912
Olyra kempi Chaudhuri, 1912: 443, pl. 41 (figs. 4, 4a, 4b). Type locality: Mangaldai (Assam-Bhutan Frontier)
[North India]. Syntypes (5): ZSI F5387/1 (1).
Distribution: Mangaldai, Assam, India (Jayaram, 1980).
Remarks: Treated in some literature as a synonym of Olyra longicaudatus.

Olyra longicaudata M’Clelland, 1842
Olyra longicaudatus M’Clelland, 1842: 588, pl. 21 (fig. 1). Type locality: Kaysah Mountains. Holotype: not saved
(M’Clelland, 1842: 572). Name spelled Olyra longicaudata on p. 574.
Distribution: Base of Darjelling Himalaya, Assam, India; Tenassarim, Myanmar (Jayaram, 1980).

Species inquirendae, Olyra
Heptapterus Collettii Steindachner, 1881b: 98. Type locality: La Plata [in error]. Syntypes: NMW 46191 (2). Illustrated
and described in more detail in Steindachner (1881d: 7, pl. 5, fig. 1). Shown to be a species of Olyra in Bockmann &
de Pinna (2004).

Olyra elongata Günther, 1883: 140. Type locality: Tenasserim [Burma]. Syntypes: BMNH 1880.12.1.64–67 (7 ?).

Hey Shane,

The list doesn't carry any diagnostic features unfortunately.I did find one article and requested a friend to check if he can get it for me. Not exactly recent though.

First record of the Catfish, Olyra horai Prashad and Mukerjee (Siluriformes: Olyridae) from India with a brief redescription of the species.
RS Pillai… - J. Zool. Soc. India, 1971


Slightly off topic : I just read that there is plant genus by the name Olyra too. Doesn't this mean one of them should 'go' as was the case with Macrones??? Or is it ok for same genus name to exist in different Kingdoms???

Shovelnose wrote:Slightly off topic : I just read that there is plant genus by the name Olyra too. Doesn't this mean one of them should 'go' as was the case with Macrones??? Or is it ok for same genus name to exist in different Kingdoms???

This answers your question.

Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks HH.