An Overview of Etymology of Freshwater Fish Fauna in Pakistan

Despite extensive work on species descriptions and taxonomic revisions, the etymology of scientific names in ichthyology has been largely neglected in Pakistan, leaving the origins and meanings of fish names poorly understood. The main objective of this study was to make it easy for the students and researchers to remember the otherwise obliviate and hard-Latinized scientific names of species. The manuscript provides an understanding of roots, meanings, and, in many cases, the associated morphological characteristics helpful in the identification of species. The collection of fish samples has been a lifelong activity that has used multiple fishing methods like cast nets, gill nets, electrofisher, and scoop nets in accordance with the recommended standard techniques. Pakistan has three main zoo-geographical components of fish fauna: the Oriental, West Asian, and the High Asian, which show its affinities with other countries of Asia. For etymological analysis, online dictionaries, relevant archives, books, and published material have been consulted. The river systems and watersheds of neighboring countries of Pakistan have remained connected in the geological past, which has facilitated the dispersal and distribution of fish fauna in these countries. Moreover, in the post-Tethyan period and before the orogeny of the Himalayas, the watershed of Pakistan remained connected with the river systems of Central Asia and China. Consequently, Pakistan has, to a variable extent, a commonality of fish fauna with neighboring countries like India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan in the East and North East and with Afghanistan in the West as well as with the Central Asian states and China. Pakistan also shares its Western Asian component of the fish fauna with Iran, especially in the province of Baluchistan, which is adjacent to Iran. This article, therefore, will not only be beneficial for students, field workers and fish biologists of Pakistan but will also be advantageous for the concerned in almost all countries of South Asia.