Monday, December 18, 2017

[Ichthyology • 2017] Brachychalcinus reisi • A New Species of Brachychalcinus (Characiformes: Characidae) from the rio Xingu basin, Serra do Cachimbo, Brazil


Brachychalcinus reisi 
Garcia-Ayala, Ohara, Pastana & Benine, 2017


Abstract

Brachychalcinus reisi, a new species of characid fish, is described from the rio Curuá, tributary of rio Iriri, rio Xingu basin, Serra do Cachimbo, Pará State, Brazil. The new species can be distinguished from its congeners by the presence of a series of longitudinal black wavy stripes on the entire body and by a lower number of longitudinal scale rows between dorsal-fin origin and lateral line (7–8 vs. 8–12). Additionally, the new species differs from B. copei, B. parnaibae, and B. retrospina by the lower number of branched dorsal-fin rays (9 vs.10). This is the first description of a new species of the subfamily since the revisionary study of Stethaprioninae, published almost 30 years ago.

Keywords: Pisces, Stethaprioninae, Neotropical region, freshwater fishes, taxonomy, Amazon

FIGURE 4. Brachychalcinus reisi, MZUSP 119456, paratype, 57.3 mm SL, Brazil, Pará, Altamira, rio Curuá, rio Xingu basin. 

Brachychalcinus reisi new species

Etymology. The specific name reisi is in honor of Roberto Esser dos Reis, for his great contributions to the knowledge of the Stethaprioninae and the Neotropical ichthyology as a whole. A genitive noun.  

  FIGURE 6. Type-locality of Brachychalcinus reisi, Brazil, Pará, Altamira, upper rio Curuá, rio Xingu basin.  


James R. Garcia-Ayala, Willian M. Ohara, Murilo N. L. Pastana and Ricardo C. Benine. 2017. A New Species of Brachychalcinus (Characiformes: Characidae) from the rio Xingu basin, Serra do Cachimbo, Brazil. Zootaxa. 4362(4); 564–574.  DOI:  10.11646/zootaxa.4362.4.5