Identity of Pterygoplichthys in SE Asia
Posted: 31 Aug 2006, 02:33
Reading that, I'm struck by two thoughts...
1) As we've seen in the photos of feral Pterygoplichthys from Texas, there exists intermediate forms between the two forms presented as P. disjunctivus and P. pardalis in that paper.
Personally I am increasingly suspicious that these two names in reality just refer to the endpoints of a continuous morphological distribution, OR that they are good species originally but interbreed freely.
2) If the vermiculated patterning is really a good character, then some of the fish in the Cat-eLog entry for pardalis are in fact disjunctivus.
Disclaimer: I Am Not An Expert.