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Hoplosternum Gill 1858

Roberto E. Reis
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Type-species: Callichthys laevigatus Valenciennes, 1840 (=H. littorale).
See the Complete Catalogue for authorships, synonyms, type-localities, and references.

Containing group: Callichthyidae

Diagnosis

No uniquely derived features were found for Hoplosternum, but a posterior triangular expansion of the second infraorbital bone, towards the pterotic-supracleithrum, is a derived condition. This character, however, is shared by the species of Brochis and some Corydoras.

Distribution

Hoplosternum littorale is the species of Callichthyidae with widest distribution. It is present in all of South America east of the Andes and north of Buenos Aires, including the Río Orinoco, Trinidad, coastal rivers of the Guianas, Río Amazonas drainage, Río Paraguay, lower Río Paraná and coastal systems in southern Brazil. One single lot is known from the upper rio Paraná (MZUSP 40336) and the rio São Francisco drainage (MCP 16715). Oliveira (1991) suggested that these occurrences may represent introduced populations. Very recently (December, 1995) I received from Dr. Leo Nico a lot of this species collected in Florida (USA).

Hoplosternum magdalenae occurs west of the Andes, in the Lago Maracaibo basin in Venezuela, and in the drainages of Río Sinu and Río Magdalena in Colombia.
Finally, Hoplosternum punctatum is only found in the Río Atrato basin in Colombia and in the Pacific coastal drainages of Panamá, in southern Central America.

Key to species of Hoplosternum

Title Illustrations
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Scientific Name Hoplosternum littorale
Location Meta, Colombia
Image Use creative commons This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 3.0.
Copyright © Roberto E. Reis
About This Page

Roberto E. Reis
Museu de Ciências e Tecnologia da PUCRS, Porto Alegre, Brazil

Page: Tree of Life Hoplosternum Gill 1858. Authored by Roberto E. Reis. The TEXT of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 3.0. Note that images and other media featured on this page are each governed by their own license, and they may or may not be available for reuse. Click on an image or a media link to access the media data window, which provides the relevant licensing information. For the general terms and conditions of ToL material reuse and redistribution, please see the Tree of Life Copyright Policies.

Citing this page:

Reis, Roberto E. 1996. Hoplosternum Gill 1858. Version 29 April 1996 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Hoplosternum/15336/1996.04.29 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

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