Trichomycterus

Wolmar B. Wosiacki, 2005, A new species of Trichomycterus (Siluriformes: Trichomycteridae) from south Brazil and redescription of T. iheringi (Eigenmann)., Zootaxa 1040, pp. 49-64 : 50

[[ Trichomycterus ]]

Trichomycteridae is a monophyletic group composed of eight subfamilies, 41 genera and about of 173 nominal species (de Pinna & Wosiacki, 2003), with many more to be described. Seven subfamilies are demonstrably monophyletic groups, but Trichomycterinae is the largest and clearly a polyphyletic group of Trichomycteridae (Wosiacki, 2002). Trichomycterinae is composed of five monotypic genera ( Eremophilus , Hatcheria , Bullockia , Silvinichthys , and Rhizosomichthys ), all defined by autapomorphies, and the genus Trichomycterus with about 100 species (de Pinna & Wosiacki 2003) that form a non-monophyletic group (de Pinna, 1989). Costa & Bockmann (1993) described the genus Ituglanis composed of some species formerly included in the genus Trichomycterus . Scleronema was proposed as a sister group of Ituglanis plus a large intrafamilial clade (Glanapteryginae, Sarcoglanidinae, Tridentinae, Stegophilinae and Vandelliinae) (Costa & Bockmann, 1993), although no subfamilial rank was proposed.

Despite the large number of species already known for “ Trichomycterus ”, many species have been recently described (Barbosa & Costa, 2003; Fernández & Schaefer, 2003; Bockmann & Sazima, 2004; Bockmann et al. 2004; Triques & Vono, 2004; Wosiacki & Garavello, 2004; and Wosiacki, 2004), and the real estimate of the diversity within the genus is far from complete. Species-level identification within Trichomycterus is often precluded by the scarce information available on most nominal species. For these reasons, redescriptions of poorly known species are crucial (Arratia, 1998; Fernández, 2000) to achieve a better taxonomic and systematic knowledge of the genus.