A collection of fishes from the enigmatic type locality of fish species described by Georges Cuvier and by Achille Valenciennes, the hot springs of Kanniya at Trincomalee, Sri Lanka

The hot springs of Kanniya are seven square shaped wells and were part of an ancient monastery complex in northeast Sri Lanka, close to Trincomalee. In 1827, the French surgeon Marc Reynaud collected some fishes from these hot springs whose temperature fluctuates between 40°C and 50°C. Since then, at several attempts, no fishes were recorded within the springs but only in the streams in the surroundings. This resulted in the conclusion that Reynaud did not collect the fishes within the hot springs but just nearby. Here we report the first finding of fishes in these hot springs since Reynaud’s collection in 1827. The samples were collected by Rainer Hacker in February 1982 in one of the seven springs and comprised seven specimens belonging to two species, Lepidocephalichthys thermalis (Cobitidae) and Rasbora microcephalus (Danionidae).