Abstract
Parotocinclus halbothiis described as a new species from the Trombetas and Marowijne river basins, in Brazil and Suriname. The new species is distinguished from its congeners in the Guianas, Orinoco, and Amazon basins by details of color pattern, form and arrangement of bony plates, body shape, and morphometric features. It is distinguished from all other species of Parotocinclusby the elongation of the canal cheek plate on the ventral surface of head posteriorly to contact the cleithrum. The new species is differentiated from Parotocinclus collinsae, the most similar species in terms of color pattern, by the small, circular, median abdominal plates, the poorly developed preanal shield with two or three plates, and by having the adipose fin rudimentary. This new species is one of the smallest loricariid catfishes known to date.
Highlights
The genus Parotocinclus currently consists of 26 species of freshwater cascudinhos
A practical justification for the continued recognition of a non-monophyletic Parotocinclus is based largely on the presence of an adipose fin, which is a unique feature among the hypoptopomatine genera (Lehmann, et al, 2013)
A taxonomic framework reflecting the relationships of the species of Parotocinclus would necessitate the description of several new genera; the difficulties inherent in implementing such a new classification have by default resulted in the continued recognition of a non-monophyletic Parotocinclus (e.g. Gauger & Buckup, 2005; Sarmento-Soares et al, 2009; Lehmann & Reis, 2012)
Summary
The genus Parotocinclus currently consists of 26 species of freshwater cascudinhos. The species are broadly distributed throughout cis-Andean South America, from Colombia and Venezuela to northern Argentina, and range in size from 20 to 80 mm SL (Lehmann et al, 2013). A practical justification for the continued recognition of a non-monophyletic Parotocinclus is based largely on the presence of an adipose fin, which is a unique feature among the hypoptopomatine genera (Lehmann, et al., 2013). A taxonomic framework reflecting the relationships of the species of Parotocinclus would necessitate the description of several new genera; the difficulties inherent in implementing such a new classification have by default resulted in the continued recognition of a non-monophyletic Parotocinclus The new species described is a member of that clade, which will be described as a new genus in a separate publication. The new species describe with a maximum SL of 19.9 mm, is one of the smallest known loricariids
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