Inhabitants of hill-streams in the East Indies; they are of small size and abundant where they occur. Thirteen species are known belonging to the genera Homaloptera, Gastromyzon, Crossostoma, and Psilorhynchus.
XIV. Cobitidina.—Mouth surrounded by six or more barbels. Dorsal fin short or of moderate length; anal fin short. Scales small, rudimentary, or entirely absent. Pharyngeal teeth in a single series, in moderate number. Air-bladder partly or entirely enclosed in a bony capsule. Pseudobranchiæ none: Loaches.
Misgurnus.—Body elongate, compressed. No sub-orbital spine. Ten or twelve barbels, four belonging to the mandible. Dorsal fin opposite to the ventrals; caudal rounded.
Four species from Europe and Asia. M. fossilis is the largest of European Loaches, growing to a length of ten inches; it occurs in stagnant waters of eastern and southern Germany and northern Asia. In China and Japan it is replaced by an equally large species, M. anguillicaudatus.
Nemachilus.—No erectile sub-orbital spine. Six barbels, none at the mandible. Dorsal fin opposite to the ventrals.
The greater number of Loaches belong to this genus; about fifty species are known from Europe and temperate Asia; such species as extend into tropical parts inhabit streams of high altitudes. Loaches are partial to fast-running streams with stony bottom, and exclusively animal feeders. In spite of their small size they are esteemed as food where they occur in sufficient abundance. The British species, N. barbatulus, is found all over Europe except Denmark and Scandinavia.
Cobitis.—Body more or less compressed, elongate; back not arched. A small, erectile, bifid sub-orbital spine below the eye. Six barbels only on the upper jaw. Dorsal fin inserted opposite to ventrals. Caudal rounded or truncate.
Only three species are known, of which C. tænia occurs in Europe. It is scarce and very local in Great Britain.
Botia.—Body compressed, oblong; back more or less arched. Eyes with a free circular eyelid; an erectile bifid sub-orbital spine. Six barbels on the upper jaw, sometimes two others at the mandibulary symphysis. Dorsal fin commencing in advance of the root of the ventrals; caudal fin forked. Air-bladder consisting of two divisions: the anterior enclosed in a partly osseous capsule, the posterior free, floating in the abdominal cavity.
