Two more species of whiptail catfishes have been described from southern Brazil by Leonardo Ingenito and coauthors.
Publishing the descriptions of Rineloricaria langei and R. maacki in the latest issue of the journal Neotropical Ichthyology, the authors name the two new species after scientists Rudolf Lange and Reinhard Maack.
Rineloricaria langei is distinguished from congeners by a combination of: narrow body (cleithral width 13.0-15.7% of standard length, the uppermost caudal-fin ray not prolonged to a filament, interorbital width 19.7-24.0% of head length, dorsal-spine length 18.3-22.2% of standard length, an elliptical naked area at the tip of the snout that does not reach the anteriormost pore of the infraorbital sensory canal, and with the abdomen and pectoral girdle completely covered by plates.
Rineloricaria maacki differs from congeners in having a combination of: a naked pectoral girdle and the abdomen covered by plates, five dorsal transverse bands, the uppermost caudal-fin ray not prolonged to a filament, snout with a naked area that does not reach the anteriormost pore of the infraorbital sensory canal, all fins except the dorsal fin lacking a distal dark band, the abdominal plates between the lateral abdominal bones arranged in four series, and the pectoral fin usually not reaching the pelvic-fin origin.
Both species are known from the Iguau River drainage, a tributary of the Paran River.
Rineloricaria langei inhabits small streams with light to moderate stream-flow, over a substrate of sand, some rocks and plant debris while R. maacki inhabits the main channel and tributaries of Iguau River, which has light brown muddy water with medium to fast flow over a sandy bottom.
For more information, see the paper: Ingenito, LFS, MS Ghazzi, LF Duboc and V Abilhoa (2008) Two new species of Rineloricaria (Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from the rio Iguau basin, southern Brazil. Neotropical Ichthyology 6, pp. 355"366.