Checklist of the ichthyofauna of Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve, Middle Solimões, Amazonas, Brazil: high richness in a large protected area of Western-Central Amazonia

Abstract

Abstract: The present study reviews the records of occurrences of fish species found in the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve (MSDR). The reserve is located in a large section of the middle Solimões River basin, in its interflow with Japurá River. For the elaboration of the list of fish species occurring in Mamirauá Reserve, we used a database of different studies on fish communities carried out in the area over the last three decades, in addition to the material deposited in the ichthyological collections of three scientific institutions, the National Institute for Amazon Research - INPA, the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Institute - IDSM and the Science and Technology Museum of the Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul - PUCRS. The ichthyofauna of the MSDR is composed of 541 species, encompassing 45 families and 15 orders. These correspond to 20% of all valid species known for the entire Amazonia so far. As observed in other studies in the Neotropical Region, the more represented orders were Siluriformes (209 species) and Characiformes (185 species), followed by the Gymnotiformes (78 species). The results presented here demonstrate a considerable increase (86%) in the knowledge about the fish diversity found in Mamirauá Reserve, in relation to its first list of fish species, published in the 90's. This increase reflects not only the growth in number of studies on fish diversity in the area, with new surveys, but also the continuous taxonomic work on the collections, and descriptions of twenty-eight new species, with one hundred and ten type series. Further surveys are expected to take place in the Northwestern, more isolated areas of the Reserve, and will allow the identification of new occurrences, and may even unveil new fish species yet to be described to Science..