Two new species of trichomycterid catfish have been described from the rivers of southeastern Brazil.
Wilson Costa and Aline Alencar of the Department of Zoology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro described the new catfishes as Trichomycterus pantherinus and T. caudofasciatus in the latest issue of the journal Zootaxa.
Trichomycterus pantherinus, which is a pale yellow sausage-shaped catfish with an irregular pattern of dark brown or black spots, was found in a clearwater stream below a waterfall in the Rio do Prata, Rio Santa da Vitoria basin, Serra dos Polacos in southeastern Brazil.
T. pantherinus is so far known from just one locality.
The other new catfish, Trichomycterus caudofasciatus, which is a pale brown fish with brown lateral splodges, was discovered in two separate locations.
One group of T. caudofasciatus was found in turbid water in the Rio Sao Domingoes area, while another group was found in the clear waters of the Rio Caparao.
In both places, the water was shallow at around 40-100cm in depth and most specimens were collected from among the bankside vegetation.
For more details on the two new species see the paper: Alencar, AR and Costa, WJEM (2004) - Description of two new species of the catfish genus Trichomycterus from southeastern Brazil (Siluriformes: Trichomycteridae). Zootaxa, 744: 1-8.