A New Distinctively Colored Catfish of the Genus Pareiorhaphis (Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from the Rio Piracicaba, Upper Rio Doce Basin, Brazil

[L172]

A New Distinctively Colored Catfish of the Genus Pareiorhaphis
(Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from the Rio Piracicaba, Upper Rio Doce Basin, Brazil

Edson H. L. Pereira and Marcelo R. Britto

A new species of Pareiorhaphis is described from the Ribeirão Caraça, a tributary to the Rio Piracicaba, upper Rio Doce basin in the State of Minas Gerais, eastern Brazil. The new taxon is promptly diagnosed from all other species of Pareiorhaphis by having a unique color pattern in both sexes. The color pattern consists of conspicuous dark brown blotches irregularly scattered over a yellowish tan background on head, along the dorsal surface of body and flanks. In addition, the new species can be further distinguished from all congeners except P. eurycephalus, P. nudulus, and P. vestigipinnis, by the absence of an adipose fin. From those species it is distinguished by morphometric traits. The new species is further compared to P. nasuta and P. scutula, which also occur in the Rio Doce system.

Erschienen in Copeia 2012, No. 3, 519–526

Grüße,
Christian