Three new species of the seasonal killifish genus Simpsonichthys, subgenus Hypsolebias (Teleostei: Cyprinodontiformes: Rivulidae) from the rio Paracatu drainage, rio São Francisco basin, Brazil.
Author
Wilson J. E. M. Costa
Author
Gilberto C. Brasil
text
Zootaxa
2006
1244
41
55
http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:21A62C97-8BE0-4382-BE2F-D1B605AA6F19
journal article
z01244p041
21A62C97-8BE0-4382-BE2F-D1B605AA6F19
[[
Simpsonichthys de Carvalho
]]
Simpsonichthys de Carvalho
is the most diversified genus of seasonal aplocheiloid killifishes, comprising 44 valid species (Costa, 2005, 2006). Species of
Simpsonichthys
occur over a vast neotropical area, including the Amazonas,
Parana-Paraguay
, and
Sao
Francisco river basins of northeastern, central, and eastern South America, and in several other smaller coastal rivers basins (Costa, 2006). The greatest diversification is concentrated in the rio
Sao
Francisco basin, with 19 endemic species (Costa, 2005, 2006). Six species (
S. trilineatus (Costa & Brasil, 1994)
;
S. auratus Costa & Nielsen, 2000
;
S. similis Costa & Hellner, 1999
;
S. alternatus (Costa & Brasil, 1994)
;
S. delucai Costa, 2003
; and
S. zonatus (Costa & Brasil, 1990)
) are endemic to the rio Paracatu and rio Urucuia drainages, two adjacent drainages constituting the southwestern portion of the rio
Sao
Francisco basin. Among them, four species form two well corroborated clades (
S. trilineatus
and
S. auratus
, and
S. alternatus
and
S. delucai
), with all four hypothesized to be more closely related to species of
Simpsonichthys
endemic to the rio Tocantins basin than to congeners occurring in other parts of the rio
Sao
Francisco basin (Costa, 1996, 2003, 2006). Three new species belonging to these clades were collected by the second author in the middle rio Paracatu drainage, and are herein described.