A new species of parasitic catfish has been found in Brazil.
The new fish, which has just been described as Trichomycterus pradensis in a paper in the journal Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, was found in the southern Bahia coastal rivers of northeastern Brazil.
The catfish was found in the upper and middle parts of the coastal drainges of the Rio Peruipe, Rio Itanhem and Rio Jucurucu basins which flow from the State of Minas Gerais to Bahia State.
The scientists who described the new catfish species say that it has a distinctive set of characters that set it apart from other trichomycterid catfishes found in South America:
"It is distinguished from its congeners by having the supraorbital sensory pores s6 placed close together, a narrow opercular patch of developed odontodes, with 8-10 odontodes, and 8 branched pectoral rays. These features make T. pradensis unique within Trichomycterus."
For more details on the new catfish see the paper: Sarmento-Soares, LM Martins-Pinheiro, RF, Arion, Aranda, T and CC Chamon. (2005) - Trichomycterus pradensis, a new catfish from southern Bahia coastal rivers, northeastern Brazil (Siluriformes: Trichomycteridae). Ichthyol. Explor. Freshwaters, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 289-302, 10 fi gs., 2 tabs., December 2005.