A new species of tropical freshwater eel has been found in the waters of northern Brazil.
The new eel, which has been named Synbranchus lampreia was found in the Rio Goiapi, near Marajo Island in Para, northern Brazil.
S. lampreia, which has recently been described by Favorito, Zanata and Assumpcao in a paper in the journal Neotropical Ichthyology, is a member of the family Synbranchidae and is one of three members of the genus.
The paper says that the new eel species differs from its congeners, Synbranchus marmoratus and S. madeira, by its distinctive colour pattern which consists of large round black blotches on a light yellow-brown background, interspersed with smaller brown speckles among the darker spots.
It also has more vertebrae than S. marmoratus and a shorter post-anal length than Synbranchus madeira.
For more details see the paper: Favorito, SE., Zanata, AM and MI Assumpcao (2005) - A new Synbranchus (Teleostei: Synbranchiformes: Synbranchidae) from ilha de Marajo, Para, Brazil, with notes on its reproductive biology and larval development. Neotropical Ichthyology, 3(3):319-328, 2005.