A new rainbowfish has been described from northeastern Madagascar in the latest issue of the journal Copeia.
Christopher Jones, Leo Smith and John Sparks name the new species Bedotia alveyi after Mark Alvey of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.
Bedotia alveyi is distinguished from congeners in having a distinctive crescent-shaped to semicircular spangle on the posterior half of many opercular and flank scales, forming golden (occasionally whitish to bluish) iridescent highlights.
It is further distinguished from congeners by a single diffuse broad midlateral band , sparse and irregular lateral blotching between the scales in life, the absence of broad white margins on the second dorsal and anal fins, and rust-red caudal-fin lobes.
Bedotia alveyi is known only from the tributaries of the Antainambalana and Vohimaro rivers in northeastern Madagascar, which are generally shallow, clear, and cool, with a moderate rate of flow, and with a substrate of rocks and sand.
For more information, see the paper: Jones, CC, WL Smith and JS Sparks (2010) A new species of rainbowfish (Teleostei: Melanotaenioidei: Bedotiidae) from the Makira region of northeastern Madagascar. Copeia 2010, pp. 284–291.