Ammoglanis natgeorum,a new miniature pencil catfish (Siluriformes: Trichomycteridae) from the lower Atabapo River,Amazonas, Venezuela |
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| Authors: | Elisabeth Henschel Nathan K Lujan Jonathan N Baskin |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Ichthyology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York, USA;2. Department of Ichthyology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York, USA
Department of Ichthyology, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, California, USA |
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| Abstract: | A new species of the sand-dwelling catfish genus Ammoglanis is described from a marginal habitat of the lower Atabapo River, a left-bank blackwater tributary of the upper Orinoco River in Amazonas, Venezuela, adjacent to the border with Colombia. Ammoglanis natgeorum is distinguished from all congeners by trunk pigmentation pattern consisting of scattered ventral chromatophores concentrated around the anal-fin base and numerous additional meristic and anatomical characteristics. A. natgeorum is the second species of Ammoglanis described from the Orinoco River basin after Ammoglanis pulex, and several shared character states (e.g., eight total dorsal-fin rays, overall coloration pattern and presence of two finger-like papillae posterior to chin) suggest that it is more closely related to Ammoglanis obliquus (from the central Amazon basin) and A. pulex than to other congeners. |
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| Keywords: | blackwater Orinoco basin psammophily riverine infauna Sarcoglanidinae taxonomy |
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