Merodoras nheco, new genus and species from Rio Paraguay basin, Brazil (Siluriformes, Doradidae), and nomination of the new subfamily Astrodoradinae. Author Horácio Higuchi Author José L. O. Birindelli Author Leandro M. Sousa Author Heraldo A. Britski text Zootaxa 2007 1446 31 42 http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:AC82821F-1400-4DA7-AD0E-41D7A2B37BE6 journal article z01446p031 AC82821F-1400-4DA7-AD0E-41D7A2B37BE6 [[ Merodoras new genus ]] During the preparation of “Peixes do Pantanal,” a book on fishes from the “Pantanal” region of western Brazil, one of us (HAB) discovered specimens of a new genus and species of Doradidae (see Britski et al., 1999). Higuchi (1992) applied the name “ Merodoras nheco ” to this discovery and a complete description of the genus and species appears in an appendix to his unpublished doctoral dissertation. The name “ Merodoras ” subsequently appeared in de Pinna (1998), but remained unavailable. The new genus and species belong to the new subfamily Astrodoradinae , a monophyletic group that was first recognized by Higuchi (1992; see also de Pinna, 1998, Moyer et al., 2002) that includes Amblydoras , Anadoras , Astrodoras , Hypodoras , Physopyxis , and Scorpiodoras . This paper formally describes this new genus and species, and nominates the new subfamily Astrodoradinae . It also includes comments on the taxonomy of the subfamily Astrodoradinae and a discussion of its phylogenetic relationships based on morphological characters of the new taxon.