taxonID	type	description	language	source
03EEBA7B757EFFB0FF294D0725B5FE0A.taxon	description	A BLASTn (Altschul et al. 1990) search was performed for the newly generated sequence on NCBI BLAST (http: // blast. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov) to confirm genus-level identity against published GenBank sequences. The newly generated sequence was aligned with those downloaded from GenBank (Benson et al. 2017) (Appendix 1) using ClustalW (Thompson et al., 1994) with default prior settings implemented in MEGA 7.1 (Kumar et al. 2016). We used Balitora chipkali and B. mysorensis as outgroup taxa. We checked for unexpected stop codons by translating the sequence to amino acids in MEGA 7.1 (Kumar et al. 2016). We performed Maximum likelihood (ML) analysis for the dataset (1067 base pairs) using the GUI version of IQTREE (Nguyen et al. 2015) implemented within the PhyloSuite (Zhang et al. 2020). The dataset partitioned by codon positions using ModelFinder (Kalyaanamoorthy et al. 2017) to find the best fit partitions and models of sequence evolution for each partition suggested three different partitions, Partition 1: TNe + G 4, Partition 2: HKY + F + I, Partition 3: TIM 2 + F + G 4. Bayesian inference (BI) analysis was carried out using the program MrBayes 3.2.7 a (Ronquist et al. 2012) implemented within PhyloSuite (Zhang et al. 2020), with default prior settings. The same dataset used for the ML analysis was partitioned by codon positions using PartitionFinder 2.1.1 (Lanfear et al. 2017) with default settings to find the best-fit model of sequence evolution. PartitionFinder suggested three different partitions, Partition 1: SYM + G, Partition 2: HKY + I, Partition 3: GTR + G. Two separate runs were set up with four Markov chains each initiated from random trees and allowed to run for 10 million generations, sampling every 1000 generations. Analyses were terminated when the standard deviation of split frequencies was less than 0.001, the first 25 % of trees were discarded as burn-in, and trees were constructed under 50 % majority consensus rule. We obtained the Effective Sample Size values using TRACER 1.6 (Rambaut et al. 2018), and confirmed values above 200 for the priors. Support for the internal branches for the ML and BI was quantified using 1000 pseudoreplicates (ultrafast bootstrap UFB) and posterior probabilities (PP), respectively. The resulting tree was visualised and edited in FigTree (http: // tree. bio. ed. ac. uk / software / figtree). The uncorrected pairwise distances (P – distance) were calculated in MEGA 7.1, with pairwise deletion of missing data and gaps.	en	Ghosh, Meghma, Bhat, Anuradha, Johnson, Jeyaraj Antony (2025): Indoreonectes mahadeoensis, a new species of river loach from headwaters of the Narmada River, India (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae). Zootaxa 5693 (4): 537-550, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5693.4.5, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5693.4.5
03EEBA7B757DFFB4FF294BB6222AFEE2.taxon	materials_examined	Holotype: WII / NWR / Type _ F 04, 53.0 mm, SL, Mahadeo stream, near Pachmarhi, Satpura Tiger Reserve, Narmadapuram District, Madhya Pradesh, India (22.4164 ° N, 78.4252 ° E, 1129 m above mean sea level); M. Ghosh, 4 June 2022. Paratypes: WII / NWR / Type _ F 05, 9 ex. 31.0 – 45.0 mm SL, same data as holotype.	en	Ghosh, Meghma, Bhat, Anuradha, Johnson, Jeyaraj Antony (2025): Indoreonectes mahadeoensis, a new species of river loach from headwaters of the Narmada River, India (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae). Zootaxa 5693 (4): 537-550, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5693.4.5, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5693.4.5
03EEBA7B757DFFB4FF294BB6222AFEE2.taxon	diagnosis	Diagnosis. Indoreonectes mahadeoensis is distinguished from all its congeners by the presence of 8 branched rays in the dorsal fin, 7 branched rays in the anal fin, and by a unique combination of the following characters: nasal barbels reaching anterior border of eye, dorsal-fin origin positioned posterior to vertical line drawn from pelvic-fin origin, and broken bars along lateral surface of body. In addition, Indoreonectes mahadeoensis can be separated from its congeners by a divergence of 11.2 to 18.6 % (uncorrected P-distance) in the mitochondrial cyt b gene sequences.	en	Ghosh, Meghma, Bhat, Anuradha, Johnson, Jeyaraj Antony (2025): Indoreonectes mahadeoensis, a new species of river loach from headwaters of the Narmada River, India (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae). Zootaxa 5693 (4): 537-550, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5693.4.5, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5693.4.5
03EEBA7B757DFFB4FF294BB6222AFEE2.taxon	description	Description. Body almost cylindrical at anterior, sub-cylindrical towards middle and, elongated and laterally compressed towards posterior end. At dorsal-fin origin, body width 7.4 to 11.8 times in standard length and depth 5.2 to 8.0 times in standard length. Head conical (Fig. 2 A), its length 3.6 to 4.6 times in standard length. Snout round and smooth, its length 2.3 to 2.6 times in head length. Eye dorso-laterally positioned, closer to tip of snout than to posterior margin of operculum. Eye diameter 4.5 to 7.3 times in head length, and inter-orbital width 2.2 to 2.6 times in head length. Pre-dorsal outline convex gradually rising up to dorsal-fin origin. A distinct hump behind nape, and post-dorsal outline rising up to base of caudal fin. Caudal peduncle short, its length as equal to caudal peduncle depth. Scales minute, embedded in skin. Mouth ventral, semi-circular, with thick, fleshy lips. Upper lip continuous and lower lip interrupted medially by groove (Fig. 2 B). Barbels 4 pairs. Nasal barbel well-developed (Fig. 2 C), 2 pairs of rostral barbels (1 outer rostral barbel and 1 inner rostral barbel), maxillary barbel and outer rostral barbel almost equal in length. Nasal barbel long, reaching in front of eye. Inner rostral barbel reaching posteriorly to anterior margin of eye. Maxillary barbel not reaching posterior border of operculum. Dorsal-fin origin slightly posterior to vertical from pelvic-fin origin, its insertion closer to caudal-fin base than tip of snout. Dorsal fin with 3 * (10) simple and 8 * (10) branched rays, its origin positioned posterior to vertical line drawn from pelvic-fin origin. Pectoral fin with 1 * (10) simple and 8 (7), 9 * (3), branched rays, its length equal to head length. Pelvic fin with 1 * (10) simple and 6 (1), 7 * (9) branched rays, its length almost equal to head length. Anal fin with 3 * (10) simple and 7 * (10) branched rays, its length 1.2 to 1.5 times head length. Caudal fin rounded, with 9 + 9 * (10) branched rays. Coloration in life. Body pale yellow, darker on dorsal, than lateral profile. Brownish-black irregular broken bars on lateral and dorsal side of body. Lateral and dorsal side bars separate from each other. Lateral bars narrower than inter-bar spaces. Complete bars present along caudal peduncle. A conspicuous spot on dorsal side of head, in addition to several head spots (Fig. 2 A). Lower and upper lips grey in colour due to concentrated pigments (Fig. 2 B), no spots on cheeks (Fig. 2 C). Dorsal-fin anterior spot well developed. Dorsal-fin membrane hyaline with 3 rows of black spots on rays (1 complete row and 2 incomplete rows). Pelvic, pectoral and anal fins hyaline. Caudal fin also hyaline, with 4 rows of dark brown spots on rays; last row towards tip comparatively darker than remaining rows (Fig. 1). Characters Indoreonectes mahadeoensis sp. nov. (n = 10)	en	Ghosh, Meghma, Bhat, Anuradha, Johnson, Jeyaraj Antony (2025): Indoreonectes mahadeoensis, a new species of river loach from headwaters of the Narmada River, India (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae). Zootaxa 5693 (4): 537-550, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5693.4.5, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5693.4.5
03EEBA7B757DFFB4FF294BB6222AFEE2.taxon	materials_examined	Holotype Mean SD Range Total length (mm) 64.1 48.6 7.4 38.3 – 64.1 Standard length (SL, mm) 53.0 40.4 6.5 30.7 – 53.0 Head length (HL, mm) 11.6 9.7 1.4 8.1 – 11.6 % inSL Head length 32.1 25.1 2.9 21.4 – 32.1 Predorsal length 60.2 58.8 4.6 55.4 – 70.9 Dorsal-fin origin to caudal-fin base 49.4 47.0 3.0 43.4 – 54.3 Prepectoral length 21.9 23.9 2.0 21.1 – 27.4 Prepelvic length 50.7 51.3 4.7 40.8 – 59.2 Preanus length 72.9 72.6 1.9 69.4 – 75.7 Preanal-fin length 79.9 79.5 4.2 72.5 – 88.1 Body depth (at dorsal-fin origin) 15.2 15.3 2.0 12.6 – 17.2 Body depth (at anus) 14.9 14.3 1.3 12.6 – 17.1 Body width (at dorsal-fin origin) 13.4 10.7 1.8 8.4 – 13.6 Body width (at anus) 8.1 6.7 0.9 5.6 – 8.1 Height of dorsal fin 19.2 19.4 1.5 17.7 – 22.8 Length of dorsal-fin base 12.1 11.3 1.8 9.3 – 4.5 Length of pectoral fin 22.4 21.1 1.7 18.8 – 23.1 Length of pelvic fin 19.1 19.8 2.4 16.6 – 26.0 Length of anal fin 17.1 18.3 2.4 15.9 – 23.4 Length of anal-fin base 8.9 9.0 1.3 7.3 – 11.8 Length of caudal fin 21.1 23.7 2.2 21.1 – 29.3 Depth of caudal peduncle 13.4 13.6 1.5 12.0 – 17.2 Length of caudal peduncle 13.7 13.2 0.7 11.7 – 14.0 % inHL Head depth 59.5 48.4 6.8 41.2 – 59.5 Head width 73.3 57.2 8.2 45.8 – 73.3 Snout length 45.7 42.1 5.8 37.3 – 56.8 Eye diameter 20.3 18.3 1.9 16.5 – 21.8 Interorbital width 45.7 38.3 4.0 31.4 – 45.7 Width of mouth 54.3 51.6 6.8 43.2 – 59.1 Habitat. Indoreonectes mahadeoensis was collected from a deep gorge-like area mainly composed of undercut bedrock and large boulders (Fig. 3). The substratum was filled with sand and gravel. The habitat was characterized by the presence of riffles, that were either flowing to meet their downstream tributaries, or ending up in small pools. The water quality parameters recorded during specimen collection (June 2022) were: temperature 23.5 ° C, pH 7.76, conductivity 51 µS and dissolved oxygen 5.3 mg / l. The riparian vegetation along the entire stretch of the riverscape comprised primarily Terminalia arjuna (Arjuna) and Syzygium cumini (Jamun). Indoreonectes mahadeoensis cooccurs with Devario aequipinnatus and Garra mullya.	en	Ghosh, Meghma, Bhat, Anuradha, Johnson, Jeyaraj Antony (2025): Indoreonectes mahadeoensis, a new species of river loach from headwaters of the Narmada River, India (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae). Zootaxa 5693 (4): 537-550, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5693.4.5, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5693.4.5
03EEBA7B757DFFB4FF294BB6222AFEE2.taxon	etymology	Etymology The species is named after its type locality — Mahadeo stream, flowing across the Gupt Mahadeo Temple near Pachmarhi hills, within the Satpura Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, Central India.	en	Ghosh, Meghma, Bhat, Anuradha, Johnson, Jeyaraj Antony (2025): Indoreonectes mahadeoensis, a new species of river loach from headwaters of the Narmada River, India (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae). Zootaxa 5693 (4): 537-550, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5693.4.5, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5693.4.5
