Adult in Rio Tocantins
Retroculus acherontos in Rio Tocantins, Amazon drainage [Brazil]. Photo by Oliver Lucanus. determiner Juan Miguel Artigas Azas

Family
Cichlidae

Sub-family
Cichlinae

Tribe
Retroculini

Genus
Retroculus


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Published:

Last updated on:
24-Jun-2015

Retroculus acherontos Landim, Moreira & Figueiredo, 2015


19-Jun-2015 — New species of Retroculus described
By Juan Miguel Artigas Azas

A new species of Retroculus from the high Rio Tocantins in the Brazilian Amazon basin has been described in the journal Zootaxa by Maria Isabel Landin, C.R. Moreira & C.A. Figueiredo from the Universities of Sao Paolo and Rio De Janeiro respectively. The new species, R. acherontos, had been originally reported by Oliver Lucanus in the April 2011 issue of Cichlid News Magazine. This species is distinctively different from the three other species in the genus from which it differs by a black blotch in the median portion of the first to seventh dorsal-fin soft rays. It also develops a nuchal hump in specimens of both sexes longer than 150 mm. It also differs in other less obvious characters. The specific name chosen for the new species, acherontos refers to the type locality in Rio de las Almas (souls river) in a cryptic way; Acheron in the Greek mythology is the river that flows to Hades, land of the souls. The new species has a known small distribution around Serra da Mesa Hydroeletric power dam, and it is considered as endangered.

Landim, María Isabel & C.R. Moreira, C.A. Figueiredo. 2015. "Retroculus acherontos, a new species of cichlid fish (Teleostei) from the Rio Tocantins basin". Zootaxa. 3973(2):369-380. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3973.2.10 (crc06779) (abstract)