Campellolebias Vaz-Ferreira & Sierra

Wilson J. E. M. Costa, 2006, Taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships among species of the seasonal, internally inseminating, South American killifish genus Campellolebias (Teleostei: Cyprinodontiformes: Rivulidae), with the description of a new species., Zootaxa 1227, pp. 31-55 : 32

[[ Genus Campellolebias Vaz-Ferreira & Sierra ]]

Campellolebias is a genus of cynolebiatin killifishes inhabiting seasonal pools with dark acid waters (pH 4.5-5.0) in dense forests of the coastal river basins of southern Brazil (Costa et al., 1989; Costa, 1995a, 2003). It constitutes a unique, reproductively specialized aplocheiloid lineage, characterized by elaborate morphological and behavioral traits related to internal insemination (Costa, 1995a, 1998). Three species are presently included in the genus, all described during the last quarter of the 20th century (Vaz-Ferreira & Sierra, 1974; Costa et al., 1989). A fourth new species is herein described.

Campellolebias was first erected to include a single species, C. brucei Vaz-Ferreira & Sierra, characterized by a unique structure of the anal fin in males, in which the first two rays are separated from the posterior portion of the fin and attached to a long urogenital papilla; and dark stripes on the ventral portion of the head in males (Vaz-Ferreira & Sierra, 1974). Campellolebias was placed in the synonymy of Cynolebias Steindachner by Parenti (1981), but considered a valid genus in subsequent studies (e. g., Costa et al., 1989; Costa, 1990, 1995a, 2003). Costa et al. (1989) described Campellolebias dorsimaculatus and Campellolebias chrysolineatus , and Costa (1995a) revised the genus, based on the few available specimens of the genus then deposited in scientific collections. His revision provided an osteological description and new data on the morphology of structures involved in internal insemination (i. e., bones, ligaments and muscles); and he introduced the term “pseudogonopodium” for the specialized anal-fin structure utilized in internal insemination (Costa, 1995a). Costa (1998) later listed some synapomorphies for Campellolebias , including bones and muscles of the pseudogonopodium and a unique reproductive courtship behavior pattern.

On the basis of morphological data, Campellolebias was considered to be the sister group to Cynopoecilus Regan, and a member of a clade including Cynopoecilus and Leptolebias Myers, which would be the sister group to a clade comprising the remaining cynolebiatines (i. e., Cynolebias , Austrolebias Costa, Simpsonichthys de Carvalho, and Nematolebias Costa) (Costa, 1990, 1998). This hypothesis was also later supported by molecular data (Hrbek et al., 2004). However, relationships among species of Campellolebias are still poorly defined (Costa, 1995a, b).