Trichomycterus Valenciennes

Luis Fernández & Roberto Quispe Chuquihuamani, 2007, A new species of Trichomycterus (Siluriformes: Trichomycteridae) from the Andean Cordillera of Perú with comments on relationships within the genus., Zootaxa 1545, pp. 49-57 : 49

[[ Trichomycterus Valenciennes ]]

Introduction

The genus Trichomycterus is a non-monophyletic assemblage with more than 100 recognized species (Arratia, 1990, 1998; de Pinna, 1998). Trichomycterus is present throughout South and Central America, from Costa Rica in the North to Patagonia in the South, and from the lowland Atlantic rainforest in the East to the Andean streams in the West, where it is among the few, or sometimes the only, fish occupying water bodies at middle to higher elevations (Arratia, 1990; Ortega, 1992; Fernández & Vari, 2004).

There are approximately sixteen described species in Trichomycterus (Eigenmann, 1918; Fowler, 1945; Arratia, 1983b; Fernández 2000a, 2001), present in Bolivia, Perú, and northern Chile. The Andean and preandean regions are characterized by the presence of several endorheic drainage basins, which have evolved a characteristic fish fauna that is poorly known or hitherto inaccessible (Arratia & Menu-Marque, 1984; Fernán- dez & Schaefer, 2003). Trichomycterus species inhabit small courses of clear water with stony substrates, strong currents, and high oxygen levels (Arratia, 1983a, Casatti, 2003). We describe a new species of Trichomycterus from several localities of southeastern Perú at elevation 1,360 to 2,200 m.