author(s)
Kamlesh Kumar Yadav, Sachin Pandit, S Bidyasagar Singh and Rani Dhanze

abstract
The comparative osteology of caudal skeleton in nine species of Labeo, Bangana and Neolisochilus was studied to find out inter-specific as well as intergeneric variations. In all the studied species last three vertebrae is participating in the formation of caudal skeleton. The morphology of rudimentary neural arch exhibited variation in all the species which is considered to be a species specific character. The long uroneural forms a gap in Neolisochilus hexasticus while such gap is absent in rest of species. The distal broad end of the parhypural supported three branched lepidotrichs in Bangana devdevi, Labeo gonius, Labeo bata, Labeo calbasu, Labeo boga and Neolisochilus hexagonolepis but four branched lepidotrichs in B. dero, N. hexasticus and N. stracheyi. The hypural diastema formed between upper and lower hypural lobes is comparatively wider in B. dero, B. devdevi, N. hexasticus, N. hexagonolepis, L. gonius, L. bata and L. calbasu while narrow in N. stracheyi and L. boga. The hypural foramen (HF) between proximal regions of the HYPI and HYPII is present in all the studied species. The neural spine arising from second preural vertebrae is incompletely divided in B. dero and N. stracheyi; completely divided in L. gonius but undivided in rest of the species. Hence based on the present findings envisaged that caudal skeleton exhibited species specific variation in respect width of parhypural and hypural, size of epural, bifurcation of neural spine and hypural diastema.