A new species of Gymnogeophagus Miranda Ribeiro from Uruguay (Teleostei: Cichliformes)

Marcelo Loureiro,Iván González-Bergonzoni,Matías Zarucki,Luiz R Malabarba

doi:10.1590/1982-0224-20150082

Marcelo Loureiro, Iván González-Bergonzoni + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-0224-20150082

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Abstract

ABSTRACT We describe a new species of a substrate-brooding Gymnogeophagus , based on coloration characters. The new species can be distinguished from the remaining substrate-brooding species in the genus by the unique pigmentation of the dorsal fin which consists of light blue, diagonal stripes over a red background in the spiny section and a combination of round, elliptic, and elongated bright blue spots over a red background in the soft section. It can be further distinguished from all other species of Gymnogeophagus by the following combination of characters: a discontinuous bright blue band above the upper lateral line in the humeral area, light blue roundish spots over a red to orange background on the anal fin, and conspicuous bright blue horizontal bands on body. The new species inhabits a wide range of freshwater habitats in the lower rio Uruguay basin, Rio de la Plata coastal drainages and Atlantic Ocean coastal drainages in Uruguay.

Highlights

Neotropical cichlids are among the most diverse fish taxa in the Neotropics (Kullander, 2003) and represent an ecologically diversified clade (López-Fernández et al, 2005a, 2005b, 2010)
We examined material of the new species and comparative material from other Gymnogeophagus species belonging to the fish collections of the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco (CAS), Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Facultad de Ciencias de la Universidad de la República, Montevideo (ZVC-P), Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Montevideo (MNHN), and Museu de Ciências e Tecnologia, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (MCP)
The new species possesses the diagnostic characters of the genus (Reis & Malabarba, 1998)

Summary

Introduction

Neotropical cichlids are among the most diverse fish taxa in the Neotropics (Kullander, 2003) and represent an ecologically diversified clade (López-Fernández et al, 2005a, 2005b, 2010). In this article we describe a new species of substratebrooding Gymnogeophagus from the middle and lower rio Uruguay basin and coastal drainages of the Río de la Plata estuary and Atlantic Ocean in Uruguay and provide a diagnosis separating it from other substrate-brooding species. This species has been previously identified as G. rhabdotus (Stawikowski, 1983), provisionally identified as “G. rhabdotus” (Yafe et al, 2002) or misidentified as G. meridionalis This species has been previously identified as G. rhabdotus (Stawikowski, 1983), provisionally identified as “G. rhabdotus” (Yafe et al, 2002) or misidentified as G. meridionalis (Reis et al, 1992: 268, fig. 4)

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