Harttia absaberi, a new species of loricariid catfish (Siluriformes: Loricariidae: Loricariinae) from the upper rio Paraná basin, Brazil

Osvaldo Takeshi Oyakawa,Ilana Fichberg,Francisco Langeani

doi:10.1590/s1679-62252013000400005

Osvaldo Takeshi Oyakawa, Ilana Fichberg + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/s1679-62252013000400005

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Abstract

A new species of Harttia, tribe Harttiini, is described from tributaries of upper portions of rio Paraná drainage. The new species, the smallest known species of the genus, attaining up to 74.0 mm of standard length, can be distinguished from its congeners by the combination of the following characters: abdomen completely covered by plates, a single preanal plate, plates of the gular area in broad contact with the canal plate. Harttia absaberi is the second species of the genus known from the upper portion of rio Paraná drainage.

Highlights

Measurements are expressed as percents of standard length (SL) unless those referring to subunits of head, which are expressed as percents of head length (HL)
Among all nominal valid species of Eastern and Southeastern Brazil, only Harttia rhombocephala, H. longipinna, and H. absaberi share the presence of numerous small osseous plates completely or almost completely covering the abdominal region
Venezuela), only H. fowleri and H. surinamensis have the abdomen completely covered by osseous plate, whereas in H. guianensis Rapp Py-Daniel & Oliveira and H. merevari, the abdomen is naked

Summary

Introduction

Loricariinae comprises a monophyletic group within the Loricariidae (Schaefer, 1987, Rapp Py-Daniel, 1997, Montoya-Burgos et al, 1998, Armbruster, 2004, Reis et al, 2006, Covain & Fisch-Muller, 2007), with 229 valid nominal species distributed in 32 to 34 genera according to Covain & Fisch-Muller (2007), Ferraris (2007), Rodriguez et al (2011) and Covain et al (2012), widely distributed throughout Central and South America drainages from Costa Rica to northern Argentina, and with the greatest diversity in the Amazon region. Harttiini sensu Rapp Py-Daniel (1997) is a monophyletic assemblage diagnosed by several synapomorphies, such as: preopercle ventral process present, second basibranchial vestigial, basipterygia cartilage plug short, lips with plates, more than 50 jaw teeth, palatine anterior process present, upper pharyngeal plate with bony shelf This author included within the Harttiini the genera Aposturisoma Isbrücker, Britski, Nijssen & Ortega, Farlowella, Harttia, Lamontichthys and Sturisomatichthys with Cteniloricaria as a junior synonym of Harttia. The genus has a broad distribution in South America, ranging from the rio Ribeira de Iguape basin (Harttia kronei Miranda Ribeiro), in São Paulo State, Brazil, to Caura River (Harttia merevari Provenzano, MachadoAllison, Chernoff, Willink & Petry), in the rio Orinoco drainage Among those 22 species, the majority described in the last two decades, ten were described for the Eastern and Southeastern Brazil, seven for the Amazonian region, and five for the Guianas and Venezuela region. Despite being one of the most studied freshwater systems in Brazil, the new species described reinforces the suggestions addressed by Langeani et al (2007) that the diversity of this drainage is underestimated

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