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Parotocinclus

Parotocinclus is a genus of fish in the family Loricariidae native to South America. This genus is distributed through almost all hydrographic systems in South America from the Guyana Shield drainages and Amazon Shield tributaries to the coastal drainages of eastern and southeastern Brazil, including the rio São Francisco basin. Most species have the caudal peduncle oval in cross section.

Ecology

It has been found that Characidium fish species may interact with P. maculicauda. The small Characidium will follow grazing P. maculicauda, which release particulate matter dislodged from the catfish's foraging.

Taxonomy

A parsimony analysis of morphological characters suggests that Parotocinclus is not a monophyletic genus, with P. jumbo and P. collinsae falling outside the group.

Based on analysis of both mitochondrial and nuclear markers, the P. collinsae cladistic group based in been transferred to Rhinotocinclus. P. jumbo may eventually be transferred also. P. bidentatus and P. muriaensis form a monophyletic pair of sister taxa that is more closely related to a subset of species of Parotocinclus (which includes P. maculicauda) than to any other genus of the tribe Otothyrini.

Species

There are currently 27 recognized species in this genus:

References