South American light-eyed fish
| South American light-eyed fish | ||||||||||||
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Fluviphylax sp. |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the family | ||||||||||||
| Fluviphylacidae | ||||||||||||
| Roberts , 1970 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Fluviphylax | ||||||||||||
| Whitley , 1965 |
The South American light-eyed fish ( Fluviphylax ) are a genus of fish in the order of the toothfish (Cyprinodontiformes) that occurs in the Brazilian Amazon basin . The genus consists of seven species, four of which were not described until the 1990s and two in 2018.
features
South American light-eyed fish grow to be 1.4 to 2 cm long. This makes them the smallest vertebrates in South America and among the smallest vertebrates in the world. They are elongated, resemble the African light-eye fish (Procatopodidae) and, like them, have a light spot in the upper half of the eye. The dorsal fin is supported by 5 to 7 fin rays, the anal fin has 7 to 10 fin rays. The number of vertebrae is from 26 to 27.
Way of life
South American light-eye fish live in small groups close to the surface in swamps and still water zones on the edge of the large rivers of the Amazon basin between dense vegetation ( hair mermaids ( Cabomba ), water hyacinths ( Eichhornia ) and water lilies ( Nymphaea )). They are rare and feed on microalgae , detritus, and small invertebrates.
species
The South American light-eye fish include seven species:
- Fluviphylax gouldingi Bragança et al., 2018
- Fluviphylax obscurus Costa, 1996
- Fluviphylax palikur Costa & Le Bail, 1999
- Fluviphylax pygmaeus (Myers & Carvalho, 1955)
- Fluviphylax simplex Costa, 1996
- Fluviphylax wallacei Bragança et al., 2018
- Fluviphylax zonatus Costa, 1996
Systematics
The first species of the South American light-eyed fish was described in 1955 by the American ichthyologist George Sprague Myers and his Brazilian colleague Antenor Leitão de Carvalho under the name Potamophylax pygmaeus . In 1965 the Australian ichthyologist led Gilbert Percy Whitley to substitute names Fluviphylax one for the genus, as the name Potamophylax by a caddis fly genus preoccupied was. Tyson R. Roberts , another American ichthyologist, established the subfamily Fluviphylacinae within the egg-laying toothcarps for the genus in 1970 .
In 1996 Costa described three other species and in 1999 together with Le Bail Fluviphylax palikur as the fifth species. After the egg-laying toothcarps were divided into different families, Fluviphylax was assigned to the subfamilies Aplocheilichthyinae or Procatopodinae within the family Poeciliidae .
However, according to various molecular genetic studies, the genus is either the sister group of a clade of viviparous toothcarps (Poeciliidae) and the Anablepidae or a clade of the viviparous toothcarps and African luminous-eye fish. The subfamily Fluviphylacinae, with Fluviphylax as the only genus, was therefore raised to family rank (now Fluviphylacidae) in February 2018.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Bragança, PHN, Amorim, PF & Costa, WJEM: Pantanodontidae (Teleostei, Cyprinodontiformes), the sister group to all other cyprinodontoid killifishes as inferred by molecular data. Zoosystematics and Evolution 94 (1), 2018: pp. 137–145, doi: 10.3897 / zse.94.22173 .
- ↑ a b Reinhold Bech: Egg-laying tooth carps. Neumann, Radebeul 1989, ISBN 3-740-20067-7 , p. 117.
- ↑ a b Costa, Wilson JEM: Relationships, monophyly and three new species of the neotropical miniature poeciliid genus Fluviphylax (Cyprinodontiformes: Cyprinodontoidei). Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters 7 (2), 1996: pp. A111-130.
- ↑ Fluviphylax on Fishbase.org (English)
- ↑ Bragança, PHN (2018): Fluviphylax gouldingi and F. wallacei, two new miniature killifishes from the middle and upper Rio Negro drainage, Brazilian Amazon (Teleostei, Cyprinodontiformes, Cyprinodontoidei). Spixiana: 41 (1): 133-146.
- ^ Myers, GS (1955): Notes on the classification and names of cyprinodont fishes. Tropical fish. Magazines. Mar. 1955: 7
- ^ Whitley, GP (1965): Some fish genera scrutinized. Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales v. for 1964-65: 25-26.
- ^ Roberts, TR (1970): Description, osteology and relationships of the Amazonian cyprinodont fish Fluviphylax pygmaeus (Myers and Carvalho). Breviora 347: 1-28.
- ↑ Costa, WJEM and P.-Y. Le Bail: Fluviphylax palikur: a new poeciliid from the Rio Oiapoque Basin, Northern Brazil (Cyprinodontiformes: Cyprinodontoidei), with comments on miniaturization in Fluviphylax and other neotropical freshwater fishes. Copeia 1999 (4): pp. 1027-1034.