A new species of the freshwater fish genus Astyanax (Ostariophysi: Characidae) from the rio Iguacu basin, southeastern Brazil.
Author
Vinícius Abilhoa
Author
Luiz Fernando Duboc
text
Zootaxa
2007
1587
43
52
http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:B2CDDEA9-F47C-444F-BA47-DB7D7EC8D49A
journal article
z01587p043
B2CDDEA9-F47C-444F-BA47-DB7D7EC8D49A
[[
Astyanax Baird & Girard
]]
The genus
Astyanax Baird & Girard, 1854
is diverse and widespread in freshwaters of South America, including at least 86 described species (Lima et al., 2003).
Astyanax
is likely a non-monophyletic genus (Weitzman & Malabarba, 1998), and the taxonomic status of some species is not completely clear.
During field expeditions to the rio da
Varzea
headwaters, a tributary of the upper portions of the rio
Iguacu
in
Parana
State, Brazil (Fig. 1), a new characid species was collected that presents the morphological features of the
A. scabripinnis species complex
. This non-monophyletic group, proposed by Moreira-Filho & Bertollo (1991) and subsequently discussed by Bertaco & Malabarba (2001) and Bertaco & Lucena (2006), possesses an elongated body (2.6 to 3.6 body depth in SL), a reduced number of branched anal-fin ray (13 to 21), a tall head region, and body deepest over middle of pectoral fins.