Ichthyologists from Brazil and Switzerland have described a new species of loricariid catfish in the genus Hypostomus in the most recent issue of the journal Neotropical Ichthyology.
Cláudio Zawadzki, Claude Weber and Carla Pavanelli name the new species from the upper Paraguay River drainage Hypostomus peckoltoides, after its attractive colour pattern (which is reminiscent of plecs of the genus Peckoltia).
The new species differs from congeners in having wide dark transverse bars on the body, dark bands on the fins and conspicuous dark vermiculations on the abdominal region.
Although it is not clear if this species has dark bands on a pale body, or pale bands on a dark body, the colour pattern is sufficiently distinct from other Hypostomus to enable the authors to recognise its distinctiveness as a species.
According to the authors, H. peckoltoides inhabits rivers with turbid waters and a substrate of rocks and sand.
Hypostomus peckoltoides has also been imported for the aquarium trade, where it was previously known as L390.
For more information, see the paper: Zawadzki, CH, C Weber and CS Pavanelli (2010) A new dark-saddled species of Hypostomus (Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from the upper rio Paraguay basin. Neotropical Ichthyology 8, pp. 719–725.