Hemipsilichthys

Edson H. L. Pereira, Roberto E. Reis, Pablo F. M. Souza & Henrique Lazzarotto, 2003, A new species of the loricariid catfish genus Hemipsilichthys from southern Rio de Janeiro coastal rivers, southeastern Brazil (Teleostei: Siluriformes)., Zootaxa 285, pp. 1-10 : 2

[[ Genus Hemipsilichthys ]]

Hemipsilichthys Eigenmann and Eigenmann , 1889 currently includes 18 species distributed chiefly in the coastal basins of southern and southeastern Brazil. One species is known from the Amazon. Coastal rivers of southern Brazil, namely the rivers of Santa Catarina State, represent the richest area of Hemipsilichthys species. The upper Uruguay River in Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina States is inhabited by three species, H. vestigipinnis Pereira and Reis , 1992, H. eurycephalus Pereira and Reis , 2002, and H. hystrix Pereira and Reis , 2002. In addition, a small area of endemism composed of the coastal rivers Maquiné, Três Forquilhas, Mampituba and Araranguá (Reis and Schaefer 1998; Reis and Cardoso 2001), is inhabited by three other species, H. nudulus Reis and Pereira , 1999, H. hypselurus Pereira and Reis , 2002, and H. stomias Pereira and Reis , 2002. Finally, remaining coastal rivers of Santa Catarina State north of the Araranguá River basin are occupied by four additional species, H. calmoni (Steindachner , 1907), H. steindachneri Miranda Ribeiro , 1918, H. splendens Bizerril , 1995, and H. azygolechis Pereira and Reis , 2002. North of the above area is a geographic gap for Hemipsilichthys , and the Paraíba do Sul River is the next area where species belonging to this genus are found: H. gobio ( Luetken , 1874) and H. papillatus Pereira et al. , 2000. Coastal rivers in Rio de Janeiro State, the Macaé and Macacu Rivers, are inhabited by H. garbei Ihering , 1911. Still further north, three species of Hemipsilichthys are found in the upper São Francisco River and nearby coastal rivers of Bahia: H. bahianus (Gosline , 1947), H. stephanus Oliveira and Oyakawa , 1999, and H. mutuca Oliveira and Oyakawa , 1999, and in the tributaries of the upper Negro River in the Amazon, H. regani Giltay , 1936. Type locality and distribution of H. cerosus Miranda Ribeiro , 1951 are not known.

Pereira and Reis (2002) recently produced a revision of Hemipsilichthys and Isbrueckerichthys Derijst , 1996, describing five new species of the former and redescribing all previously known species. Of the 18 known species, 11 were described during the last ten years and additional undescribed species await formal description. During a survey of coastal rivers on southeastern Brazil one of these undescribed species was detected in the upper Perequê-Açu River by the two first authors. Independently, the two last authors also found the same new species during ecological studies in coastal rivers of southeastern Rio de Janeiro State.