'Pseudobunocephalus' new genus

Notes about Taxa: Taxa whose names appear in quotes on this Tree of Life page are undescribed. In accord with articles 8 and 9 of the third edition of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN, 1985), I do not issue this page for permanent scientific record. This page is designated an unavailable work for nomenclatural purposes. All names for new genera and species are provisional and will become available when my manuscript describing the type specimens is published in an offical work such as a peer reviewed journal.

Introduction

This new genus is widespread in the Orinoco, Amazon and Paraguay-Paraná basins. Specimens of 'Pseudobunocephalus' may be mistaken at first glance as juveniles of Bunocephalus and are often in mixed lots with larger Bunocephalus specimens.

Characteristics

Diagnosis

A genus of relatively small banjo catfishes (up to 80 mm SL) distinguished from other aspredinids by the following characters: dentary teeth restricted to a broad tooth patch near symphysis of lower jaw; metapterygoid does not contact quadrate; posterior end of palatine forked; fourth pharyngobranchial absent; gill rakers absent on all gill arches; and parapophysis of fifth vertebrae oriented anteriorly. Characters not unique but useful for identification include: jaws equal, mouth terminal; lateral line truncated at approximately the level of the dorsal fin origin; dorsal- and ventral-most principal caudal rays much shorter than others and dorsal- and anal-fin membranes not adnate with body.

References

Boulenger, G. A. 1891. An account of the siluroid fishes obtained by Dr. H. von Ihering and Herr Sebastian Wolff in the Providence Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, April 7, 1891, 231-235.

Eigenmann, C. H., & Kennedy, C. H. 1903. On a collection of fishes from Paraguay, with a synopsis of the American genera of cichlids. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 55(2): 497-537.

Eigenmann, C. H., & Allen, W. R. 1942. Fishes of Western South America. The University of Kentucky, XV + 494 pp.

Friel, J. 1994. A phylogenetic study of the Neotropical banjo catfishes (Teleostei: Siluriformes: Aspredinidae) Ph.D. thesis, Duke University, Durham, NC, 256 pp.

Mees, G. F. 1989. Notes on the genus Dysichthys, subfamily Bunocephalinae, family Aspredinidae (Pisces, Nematognathi). Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, 92(2): 189-250.