Amblyceps is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of catfish

Catfish

Catfishes are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest and longest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the second longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores...

es (order

Order (biology)

In scientific classification used in biology, the order is# a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, family, genus, and species, with order fitting in between class and family...

 Siluriformes) of the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Amblycipitidae

Amblycipitidae

Amblycipitidae is a family of catfishes, commonly known as torrent catfishes. It includes three genera, Amblyceps, Liobagrus, and Xiurenbagrus.-Taxonomy:...

.

Phylogeny

The genera Amblyceps and Liobagrus are sister group

Cladistics

Cladistics is a method of classifying species of organisms into groups called clades, which consist of an ancestor organism and all its descendants . For example, birds, dinosaurs, crocodiles, and all descendants of their most recent common ancestor form a clade...

 pair that is, in turn, sister to Xiurenbagrus

Xiurenbagrus

Xiurenbagrus is a genus of catfishes of the family Amblycipitidae. It includes two species.-Taxonomy:X. xiurenensis was first described in 1981 as Liobagrus xiurenensis. However, it was realized that Liobagrus would not be monophyletic with the inclusion of this species, so Xiurenbagrus was erected...

.

Distribution and habitat

Amblyceps species are distributed throughout south and southeast Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

. They typically inhabit fast flowing hill streams or fast-flowing stretches of larger rivers. Amblyceps are mainly distributed in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and the Malay Peninsula

Malay Peninsula

The Malay Peninsula or Thai-Malay Peninsula is a peninsula in Southeast Asia. The land mass runs approximately north-south and, at its terminus, is the southern-most point of the Asian mainland...

. Three species are known from Myanmar

Myanmar

Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....

, A. murraystuarti, A. mucronatum, and A. carinatum.

Description

Amblyceps are easily distinguished by the presence of pinnate

Pinnate

Pinnate is a term used to describe feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis in plant or animal structures, and comes from the Latin word pinna meaning "feather", "wing", or "fin". A similar term is pectinate, which refers to a comb-like arrangement of parts...

 processes along the median caudal-fin rays (although these processes may be poorly developed in some species), a prominent cup-like skin flap above the base of the pectoral spine, and the adipose fin largely separate from the caudal fin. In most species the caudal fin is deeply forked; A. apangi and A. murraystuarti differ in having their caudal fin truncate. Amblyceps species may reach about 100 millimetres (3.94 in) SL

Fish measurement

Fish measurement refers to the measuring of the length of individual fish and of various parts of their anatomy. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology.-Overall length:...

.

Species

• Amblyceps apangi Nath & Dey, 1989
• Amblyceps arnunachalensis Nath & Dey, 1989
• Amblyceps caecutiens Blyth, 1858
• Amblyceps carinatum
  Amblyceps carinatum
  Amblyceps carinatum is a species of catfish belonging to the family Amblycipitidae. It is only known from the middle part of the Ayeyarwady River basin in Myanmar....
  
  Ng, 2005
• Amblyceps cerinum Ng & Wright, 2010
• Amblyceps foratum Ng & Kottelat, 2000
• Amblyceps laticeps (McClelland, 1842)
• Amblyceps macropterus Ng, 2001
• Indian torrent catfish, Amblyceps mangois (Hamilton
  Francis Buchanan-Hamilton
  Dr Francis Buchanan, later known as Francis Hamilton but often referred to as Francis Buchanan-Hamilton was a Scottish physician who made significant contributions as a geographer, zoologist, and botanist while living in India.The standard botanical author abbreviation Buch.-Ham. is applied to...
  
  , 1822)
• Amblyceps mucronatum Ng & Kottelat, 2000
• Amblyceps murraystuarti Chaudhuri, 1919
• Amblyceps platycephalus Ng & Kottelat, 2000
• Amblyceps serratum Ng & Kottelat, 2000
• Amblyceps tenuispinis Blyth, 1860
• Amblyceps torrentis Linthoingambi & Vishwanath, 2008
• Amblyceps tuberculatum Linthoingambi & Vishwanath, 2008
• Amblyceps variegatum Ng & Kottelat, 2000