A new species of Corydoras catfish has been described from the Putumayo River in Peru.
The new species is named Corydoras ortegai and its description by Marcelo Britto, Flvio Lima and Max Hidalgo is published in the latest issue of the journal Neotropical Ichthyology.
The new species appears to be most closely related to C. reynoldsi, C.weitzmani, C. panda and C. tukano, all of which share a colour pattern of a uniformly light body, dark bar across the eye, and one or two large blotches midlaterally on the trunk.
Corydoras ortegai is easily distinguished from these species except C. panda, by the absence of a midlateral trunk blotch at the dorsal-fin level, and the rounded shape of the midlateral trunk blotch at the adipose-fin level.
Corydoras ortegai differs from C. panda in having more lateral body plates, absence of dorsal-fin blotch, scattered melanophores surrounding the midregion of the cleithrum, caudal fin with a series of small blotches restricted to rays, more slender body and narrower intercleithral area.
Corydoras ortegai is also unusual in having the inner mandibular barbels mostly fused along their length and separated only at their tips.
The new species, named after Peruvian ichthyologist Hernn Ortega Torres, is known from the tributaries of the Yaguas River, a tributary of the lower Putumayo River in Peru, very close to the border with Colombia and Brazil.
The new species is known in the aquarium trade as the Loreto panda, and appears to have been exported only to Japan so far.
For more information, see the paper: Britto, MR, FCT Lima and MH Hidalgo (2007) Corydoras ortegai, a new species of corydoradine catfish from the lowe ro Putumayo in Peru (Ostariophysi: Siluriformes: Callichthyidae). Neotropical Ichthyology 5, pp. 293"300.