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Researchers have described a new species of freshwater catfish, Pseudolaguvia khairii, from the Budhabalanga river in Mayurbhanj district, Odisha.
The species is named in honour of Khairi, the tigress rescued as an orphaned cub from Similipal in the 1970s.
It is distinguished from all known relatives by a fleshy protuberance at the base of the dorsal fin, a feature not previously recorded in the genus.
The genus Pseudolaguvia comprises small hillstream catfishes found in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar.
The description was published in the taxonomic journal Zootaxa on 26 July 2026.
A species does not officially exist in science until it is formally described in a peer-reviewed publication. The description must set out the characters that separate the new species from all its known relatives, designate a type specimen deposited in a museum collection, and assign a binomial name under the rules of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Until then, an unusual-looking animal is only a candidate. That is why the publication date in a journal such as Zootaxa is the date the species formally enters the scientific record.
Simple Analogy: It is the difference between noticing a new word in use and having it entered in the dictionary with a definition and a citation.
The Budhabalanga river rises in the Similipal hills of Mayurbhanj district in northern Odisha and flows east to the Bay of Bengal.
GS Paper 3 > Conservation and Biodiversity
General Awareness > Environment and Current Affairs
A genus of small hillstream catfishes found in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar.
An international peer-reviewed journal for animal taxonomy, in which new species descriptions are published.
The reference specimen deposited in a collection against which a species name is permanently anchored.
The forest and tiger reserve landscape in Mayurbhanj district, Odisha, from which the tigress Khairi was rescued.