Pterolebias longipinnis was
described by Garman in 1895 has its locality type
in the Amazon Basin, in the municipality of Santarém,
Pará. He is a member of the Rachovini tribe (Costa, 1990), a
including annual species endemic to the center
and north of South America (Costa, 2014). The species
has a great variation of color, mainly
males, which are larger and more colorful than
the females. The specimens photographed were all
collected in a marginal pool on the Paraguay River,
Pantanal plain (ZUFMS 5433, 5434).
Identification. Three species of Pterolebias are
described for South American drainage, two of which are
found in Brazilian territory: P. longipinnis
and P. phasianus Costa, 1988, while P. hoignei
Thomerson, 1974 occurs only in the Orinoco basin
in Venezuela. P. longipinnis has 3 to 4 scales
in the anal sheath; dorsal with 9, pectoral with 15 to 16
and anal with 18-19 rays. Longitudinal line with 31 a
32 scales (Britski et al., 2007). The species presents
marked sexual dimorphism. Beyond the colorful colorful
that the males present in life, they have the
ventral to the end of the anal and dorsal
anal intercourse exceed the onset of flow while females
have smaller fins and have a rounded edge.
Biology. P. longipinnis is part of the fish group
known as annual fish. This term refers to
to a unique condition present in this group of
fish, the diapausas. Diapauses are exclusive to
a lineage of natural history of the Aplocheiloidei
Americans and Africans (Parenti, 1981). There is no
publication in the scientific field that addresses
about its natural food supply but the
from the mouth upwards, and the habit of living close
to the water surface (Costa, 2005) suggest the capture
of allochthonous items falling on the surface of the water,
which is reinforced by observations in aquariums (obs.
pess.). Field observations and collections in the Pantanal
revealed that this species occurs in syntopy with
the also annual P. phasianus and Trigonectes balzanii
(Perugia, 1891) as well as several other species of
non-annual fish, including in bays, non-temporal environments.
Easily found and captured
during the night while sleeping near the surface
of the shallowest areas of wetlands.
Distribution. The distribution of the genus Pterolebias
covers the east and south of the Amazon basin and the
Paraná-Paraguay, occurring in Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay
and Argentina. Within this geographical range, P.
longipinnis is the most extensive species, occurring
Marajó, in Pará, to Corrientes in Argentina
(Costa, 2005).
Conservation. Pterolebias longipinnis not found
threat of extinction according to the recent list of
threatened species (BRASIL, 2014).
Thanks. To Tamires Yule and Matheus Volcan
suggestions in the text and the Rufford Foundation for
financial support (RSGF 22546-1).
Literature cited.
BRAZIL. 2014. National List of Brazilian Fauna Species Threatened
Extinction. Available at: http: // www. icmbio.gov.br/portal/biodiversidade/
fauna-Brazilian / species-list.html. Access in [08/10/2017]
Britski, H.A., Silimon, K. Z. S. & Lopes, B.S. 2007. Pantanal Fish: Manual of
identification. Embrapa, Brasília, 230p.
Costa, W. J. E. M. 1990. Phylogenetic analysis of the Rivulidae family
(Cyprinodontiformes, Aplocheiloidei). Brazilian Journal and Biology, 50: 65-82.
Costa, W. J. E. M. 2005. The Neotropical annual killifsh genus Pterolebias Garman
(Teleostei: Cyprinodontiformes: Rivulidae): phylogenetic relationships,
descriptive morphology, and taxonomic revision. Zootaxa, 1067: 1-36.
Costa, W. J. E. M. 2014. Phylogeny and evolutionary radiation in seasonal rachovine
killifishes: biogeographical and taxonomical implications. Vertebrate Zoology,
64: 177-192.
Parenti, L. R. 1981. A phylogenetic and biogeographic analysis of cyprinodontiform
fishes (Teleostei, Atherinomorpha). Bulletin of the American Museum of
Natural History, 168: 335-557.
__________
Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Center for Biological
of Health, University City, CEP 79070-700, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso
of the South, Brazil.
São Paulo State University "Júlio de Mesquita Filho" (UNESP), Institute of
of Biosciences, Letters and Exact Sciences, Department of Zoology and Botany,
Laboratory of Ichthyology, Rua Cristóvão Colombo, 2265, Jardim Nazareth,
CEP 15054-000, São José do Rio Preto, SP, Brazil
