Two new species of tetra from the Bryconops genus have been described from the waters of Venezuela.
The new species, which have been named Bryconops magoi and B. collettei in a paper in the journal Zootaxa, were discovered in the Orinoco and Cuyuni drainges straddling three States in Venezuela.
Bryconops magoi is a small to medium sized tetra which reaches around 6cm/2" or so, and has a silvery base colour with a distinctive caudal spot which is red on the upper half. It was discovered in a small area around the Rio Moquete at Paso Bajito in Venezuela.
The second new species, B. collettei, has been found over a much wider area, with specimens recorded from three different States within the country.
Like magoi, collettei also has a spot on the caudal which is red on the upper half, but can be told apart via a number of morphometric characters.
Both species are similar to an existing fish, B. caudomaculatus, and the authors say that some of the fishes in museum collections identified as this species are actually members of the two new species.
The two new fish bring the total number of species in the Bryconops genus to 15. The fishes are widely distributed across much of South America, with the majority of species being most common in blackwater habitats.
For more details see the paper: Chernoff, B and A. Machado-Allison (2005) - Bryconops magoi and Bryconops collettei (Characiformes:
Characidae), two new freshwater fish species from Venezuela, with comments on B. caudomaculatus (Gnther). Zootaxa 1094: 1-23 (2005).