Neoplecostomus Explained

Neoplecostomus is a genus of fish in the family Loricariidae native to South America. Neoplecostomus can be distinguished from all other loricariids by a modified shield of small plates on the abdomen with posteriorly directed odontodes; the shield appears to act as a holdfast. The color pattern is generally mottled brown with the abdomen white. The head is long, rounded, and shovel-shaped. The fin spines are weak. They range from about 8cmto(-)11cmcm (03inchesto(-)04inchescm) SL. The species of Neoplecostomus live in fast-flowing water.^[1]

Species

There are currently 18 recognized species in this genus:

• Neoplecostomus bandeirante Roxo, C. de Oliveira & Zawadzki, 2012^[2]
• Neoplecostomus botucatu Roxo, C. de Oliveira & Zawadzki, 2012^[2]
• Neoplecostomus corumba Zawadzki, Pavanelli & Langeani, 2008
• Neoplecostomus doceensis Roxo, G. S. C. Silva, Zawadzki & C. de Oliveira, 2014^[3]
• Neoplecostomus espiritosantensis Langeani, 1990
• Neoplecostomus franciscoensis Langeani, 1990
• Neoplecostomus granosus (Valenciennes, 1840)
• Neoplecostomus jaguari B. N. Andrade & Langeani, 2014^[4]
• Neoplecostomus langeanii Roxo, C. de Oliveira & Zawadzki, 2012^[2]
• Neoplecostomus microps (Steindachner, 1877)
• Neoplecostomus paranensis Langeani, 1990
• Neoplecostomus paraty Cherobim, Lazzarotto & Langeani, 2017^[5]
• Neoplecostomus pirangaensis Oliveira & Oyakawa, 2019^[6]
• Neoplecostomus ribeirensis Langeani, 1990
• Neoplecostomus selenae Zawadzki, Pavanelli & Langeani, 2008
• Neoplecostomus variipictus Bizerril, 1995
• Neoplecostomus watersi Silva, Reia, Zawadzki & Roxo, 2019^[7]
• Neoplecostomus yapo Zawadzki, Pavanelli & Langeani, 2008

Notes and References

1. Web site: Neoplecostomus Eigenmann and Eigenmann, 1888. Jonathan W.. Armbruster. 2007-07-13.
2. Roxo, F.F., Oliveira, C. & Zawadzki, C.H. (2012): Three new species of Neoplecostomus (Teleostei: Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from the Upper Rio Paraná basin of southeastern Brazil. Zootaxa, 3233: 1–21.
3. Roxo, F.F., Silva, G.S.C., Zawadzki, C.H. & Oliveira, C. (2014): Neoplecostomus doceensis: a new loricariid species (Teleostei, Siluriformes) from the rio Doce basin and comments about its putative origin. ZooKeys, 440: 115–127.
4. Andrade, B.N. & Langeani, F. (2014): A new species of Neoplecostomus Eigenmann & Eigenmann, 1888 (Siluriformes: Loricariidae: Neoplecostominae) from the upper rio Paraná basin. Neotropical Ichthyology, 12 (4): 675-681.
5. Cherobim, A.M., Lazzarotto, H. & Langeani, F. (2017): A new species of the catfish Neoplecostomus (Loricariidae: Neoplecostominae) from a coastal drainage in southeastern Brazil. Neotropical Ichthyology, 14 (4): e160015.
6. Oliveira, Jose & Oyakawa, Osvaldo. (2019). New loricariid fishes from headwaters on Serra da Mantiqueira and Complexo do Espinhaço, Minas Gerais State, Brazil (Teleostei: Siluriformes: Loricariidae). Zootaxa. 4586. 401. 10.11646/zootaxa.4586.3.1.
7. Web site: Order SILURIFORMES: Family LORICARIIDAE: Subfamilies LITHOGENINAE, HYPOPTOPOMINAE and LORICARIINAE . 7 November 2021 . Christopher Scharpf . Kenneth J. Lazara . amp . The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database . Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara . 22 September 2018.