Loricariid catfish authority Dr Jonathan Armbruster has finally published his long-awaited phylogeny of the family.
The new paper, which has just been published in The Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, covers the family Loricariidae but focusses mainly on the evolutionary relationships of the Hypostominae and the Ancistrinae subfamilies.
Armbruster looked at nearly every ancistrine and hypostomine genus during the course of the research and examined the osteology, myology and digestive tracts of the plecs to determine which were most closely related to each other and whether they were actually in the correct genera.
Armbruster's reshuffling suggest that the hypostomines are paraphyletic. This means that the Hypostominae share a recent common ancestor and that some, but not all of its descendents are included in the subfamily.
The more unusual genera, Upsilodus and Delturus are in a monophyletic group which is sister in the clade with other loricariids.
Fishkeepers will also need to get used to some new scientific names for old favourites, as Armbruster suggests dropping the genera Liposarcus and Glyptoperichthys as they are actually synonyms of Pterygoplichthys. The Pterygoplichthys genus has a close relative in the form of a sister group containing Hemiancistrus annectens (which includes Hypostomus panamensis).
For more details read the paper: Armbruster, JW (2004) - Phylogenetic relationships of the suckermouth armoured catfishes (Loricariidae) with emphasis on the Hypostominae and the Ancistrinae. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, Volume 141Issue 1Page 1 - May 2004, doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2004.00109.x.