Molecular systematics of the armored neotropical catfish subfamily Neoplecostominae (Siluriformes: Loricariidae)

Abstract

Morphological and molecular studies in the family Loricariidae have revealed that the relationships among its membersare not yet well resolved, and the present study was conducted with the main objective of improving our knowledge aboutthis highly diversified group of catfishes. Maximum parsimony and Bayesian analysis were conducted on a matrix of 53terminal taxa and 4676 characters with partial sequences of the genes COI, CytB, 16S rRNA, 12S rRNA and F-reticulon4. As outgroups, samples of the species Hemipsilichthys gobio and H. papillatus (subfamily Delturinae), Rineloricariajaraguensis (subfamily Loricariinae), Hypostomus nigromaculatus (subfamily Hypostominae), Hypoptopomainexpectatum (subfamily Hypoptopomatinae), and Corumbataia cuestae (subfamily Otothyrinae) were used. The resultsshowed that the subfamily Neoplecostominae is monophyletic, including Pseudotocinclus, and three clades wererecognized. The first one is composed of Pareiorhina rudolphi, P. cf. rudolphi and Pseudotocinclus. The second iscomposed of Isbrueckerichthys, Pareiorhaphis, Kronichthys and Neoplecostomus ribeirensis. The third is composed ofthe remaining species of the genera Neoplecostomus, except N. ribeirensis, Pareiorhina carrancas, P. cf. carrancas,Pareiorhina sp. 1 (possible new species) and an undescribed taxon referred to in this paper as new genus and species 2. In our analyses, Pareiorhina and Neoplecostomus are paraphyletic taxa.