Abstract
Fishes from the coastal basins of the Mid-Northeastern Caatinga ecoregion (MNCE) were first sampled by the Stanford expedition at the beginning of the 20th century, and published by Edwin C. Starks in 1913. This material included specimens from the Papary lake (= Papari lagoon) in the lower portion of the Trairí river basin, draining towards the eastern coast of Rio Grande do Norte State. In 1941, Henry Fowler provided a broad taxonomic study of the freshwater fishes from northeastern Brazil, including material from the Papari lagoon, besides describing four species assigned to this locality. However, these previous surveys focused only in the lower portion of the Trairí river basin and might be incomplete. Given this framework, the present study aimed at perform a wide ichthyofaunal inventory of Trairí river basin and compared with previously surveys performed in the regions. In 2013 and 2014, four expeditions along the whole basin, including the Papari lagoon itself, resulted in 28 species of fishes belonging to 17 families and seven orders. At Papari lagoon area 16 species were registered whereas 26 and 18 species were recorded by Starks and Fowler’s studies, respectively. Considering all records, 50 species were documented in the basin with 14 (28%) new records, including Serrapinnus potiguar, whose distribution was extended to the south. Two species described by Fowler, Pimelodella papariae and Pseudancistrus papariae, were not found in this study or in any fish collection, and are only known from their type-material. These two species can be naturally rare, locally extinct, or there were inaccuracies in their type-locality. However, species of these genera are only found in larger basins of the MNCE, which drains to the north, corroborating the latter assumption. Although not being a definitive list, the recent extensive fish surveys conducted in the MNCE’s coastal basins are helping to elucidate species’ geographic distribution and little knowing taxonomic issues.
Highlights
The Mid-Northeastern Caatinga Ecoregion (MNCE), composed by coastal basins fully or partially inserted in the semiarid, was a knowledge gap in the diversity of freshwater fishes until recently (Lévêque et al, 2008; Langeani et al, 2009; Lima et al, 2017)
The Trairí river basin has an approximate area of 2.900 km2, of which 99.63% are inserted in Rio Grande do Norte State (RN) and a small fraction of its upper portion in Paraíba State (ANA/SGI, 2014) (Fig. 1)
A total of 28 species belonging to 25 genera, 17 families, and six orders were recorded in our surveys
Summary
The Mid-Northeastern Caatinga Ecoregion (MNCE), composed by coastal basins fully or partially inserted in the semiarid, was a knowledge gap in the diversity of freshwater fishes until recently (Lévêque et al, 2008; Langeani et al, 2009; Lima et al, 2017). One of the first fish collections at the MNCE was undertaken by the Stanford Expedition in 1911 when a few drainages in Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte states were sampled (Starks, 1913). Among the sampled locations was the Papary lake (or ‘Lago Papari’), located at the lower stretch of the Trairí river basin, draining to the eastern coast of Rio Grande do Norte State.
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