Two new, remarkably colored species of the Neotropical catfish genus Cetopsorhamdia Eigenmann & Fisher, 1916 (Siluriformes, Heptapteridae) from Chapada dos Parecis, western Brazil, with an assessment of the morphological characters bearing on their phylogenetic relationships

Abstract

Two new species of heptapterid catfish genus Cetopsorhamdia are described from close localities in western Brazil, at Chapada dos Parecis, an area with extremely high level of endemism. One species is from the upper Rio Madeira system, Rondônia State, and the other from the upper Rio Tapajós system, Mato Grosso State. The two species are diagnosed, among several other features, by their markedly distinctive color patterns, with the former having well-defined quadrangular marks in trunk flanks while the latter bearing irregular, vertical bars along the trunk. The monophyly of Cetopsorhamdia is discussed, with two putative synapomorphies being proposed to support the genus. Potentially informative morphological characters to resolve the internal relationships of the genus are presented and discussed. Despite the striking external differences between the two species herein described, they are found to likely form a clade.