A new species of filament barb of the genus Dawkinsia is described from upstream regions of west-flowing Kajali, Jagabudi and Terekhol  river systems in the Konkan region of northern Western Ghats, India. The new species, Dawkinsia uttara is sister species of the widely distributed D. filamentosa . Dawkinsia uttara is diagnosed from its sister species, and other close congeners by a combination of characters including: 21 lateral-line scales; 4½ scales between dorsal-fin origin and lateral-line scale row; terminal mouth; posterior termination of the upper lip ending anterior to level of posterior nostril; cleithral spot small, confined to the scale below the first scale of lateral-line; no or miniscule maxillary barbels; caudal-peduncle blotch short, oval, covering 14 ^th to 17 ^th scales of lateral-line, and a unique colour pattern of caudal fin with a narrow elongate black subdistal band having maximum width of about one third of eye diameter covering the lateral margin of tips of caudal-fin lobes. Further, D. uttara differs from its sister taxon, D. filamentosa and other congeners by a raw genetic distance ranging from 2.1 – 19.7% in partial cox 1, and 3.2 – 21.6% in partial cyt b genes.

Dawkinsia filamentosa, freshwater fish, integrative taxonomy, Smiliogastrinae