Abstract
The rio Madeira is the largest white-water tributary of the Amazon, and is currently the river drainage with the highest fish species diversity in the world. A new species of Panaqolus was recognized from the middle Madeira and Mamoré rivers (Brazil) and from the Madre de Dios drainage (Peru) and it is described herein. This new species is readily distinguished from its congeners by the large number of white dots distributed all over the body and by its remarkable amplitude of color pattern variation, ranging from a pale, light brown, to dark brown and almost black background coloration. The new species closely resembles P. albomaculatus but has more and smaller dots on the body, a smaller orbital diameter (12.5-16.8% head length vs. 16.0-20.0%) and longer maxillary barbels (9.7-19.6% head length vs. 1.6-8.9%). The new species is the second of the genus Panaqolus described for a Brazilian location after nearly 80 years of the description of P. purusiensis.
Highlights
The rio Madeira is the largest tributary of the rio Amazonas with an average discharge of 31,200 m3/s and a total drainage area of 1,370,000km2 spanning three countries; Brazil, Bolivia and Peru
Suspended solids carried by the Madeira are responsible for 50% of the sediments in the rio Amazonas
An ongoing inventory in the rio Madeira has already identified more than 1,000 fish species
Summary
The rio Madeira is the largest tributary of the rio Amazonas with an average discharge of 31,200 m3/s and a total drainage area of 1,370,000km spanning three countries; Brazil, Bolivia and Peru. Com.; Queiroz et al, 2013), more than in any other river in the world (Doria et al, 2011) Despite this rich diversity of fishes, the rio Madeira is relatively poor in ancistrines (Siluriformes: Loricariidae) when compared with other Amazonian rivers, e.g. the rio Xingu with more than 40 species (Camargo et al, 2013), with only 28 species listed After the description of several new species, its taxonomic position and limits have solidified and it is more widely accepted (for an overview see Cramer, 2014). Despite the large number of different Panaqolus phenotypes and undescribed species known from Brazilian drainages (Evers & Seidel, 2005), the new species described is only the second described that occurs in Brazil, nearly 80 years after the description of P. purusiensis
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