Gross morphology of the brain and some sense organs of subterranean pencil catfishes of the genus Ituglanis Costa and Bockmann, 1993 (Siluriformes, Trichomycteridae), with a discussion on sensory compensation versus preadaptation in subterranean fishes.

Abstract

Subterranean organisms provide excellent opportunities to investigate morphological evolution, especially of sensory organs and structures and their processing areas in the central nervous system. We describe the gross morphology of the brain and some cephalic sensory organs (olfactory organ, eye, semicircular canals of the inner ear) and the swim bladder (a non-sensory accessory structure) of subterranean species of pencil catfishes of the genus Ituglanis Costa and Bockmann, 1993 (Siluriformes, Trichomycteridae) and compare them with an epigean species of the genus, Ituglanis goya Datovo, Aquino and Langeani, 2016. We compared qualitatively the size of the different brain regions and sense organs of the subterranean species with those of the epigean one, searching for modifications possibly associated with living in the subterranean environment. Our findings suggest that species of Ituglanis exhibit sensory characteristics that are preadaptive for the subterranean life, as only slight modifications were observed in the brains and sense organs of the subterranean species of the genus when compared with the epigean one. Because most subterranean fish species belong to lineages putatively preadapted for subterranean life, our results, discussed in the context of available information on the brain and sense organs of other subterranean species, help identify general trends for the evolution of the brain and sensory organs of subterranean fishes in general.