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Cochliodon=Hypostomus: it's now officially published.

Armbruster, JW, 2003. The species of the Hypostomus cochliodon group (Siluriformes: Loricariidae). Zootaxa, 249: 1-60.

Four new species also described.

Pdf available for download here (whew, at least I don't have to answer requests or make pdfs this time).

whew, at least I don't have to answer requests or make pdfs this time

(sorry i just had to post this...)

Achim

Hi!

Very interesting document...

Can anybody answer me why theres no mention of polymporph eye color in H.cochliodon?

Working with preserved material kind of takes care of that (I don't know how many specimens, if any, Jon had seen alive)...everything would then be brown or gray.

question arises within me how close to nature the museum geeks are then...

Sometimes, hardly at all. I've had to work with material collected more than 60 years ago. Poor preservation has led to the loss of color, poor record-keeping makes establishing even what river drainage the fish comes from almost impossible. Therefore I know next to nothing of the biology of the fish.
It's a pain to work with material like that, but very often necessary.

Caol_ila wrote:question arises within me how close to nature the museum geeks are then...

About as close as the l-number geeks are to science; but I don't think that's the point here, I think the point is how close the linnean system is to nature. The answer is not very, but that in turn is not the point.

Classification exists so that we, as humans, can group things in an attempt to understand them better. Nature doesn't exist for human benefit.

Kind of a silly question, no?

Jools

hmm i have to think if it really is silly...id rather say a bit naive...but it was just what popped up after i flew over the paper...
I know that Jon has kept H.cochliodon and i know that he knew about the blue eye specimens showing up in the trade, as ive mailed him about that a while back.
I just asked "stripped to my childish asking niveau" why its not of matter to science...like theres not so many polymorph eye color fishes that i know of. Worth a sentence or two wouldnt it? (Wouldnt have been much of a probllem to order one (guess JA has some friends in the business) for 15â?¬ and ask his exact catching place...)

And when i think if you-know-who and his Syno paper i wonder if its sometimes not for human ego...

Although i have to repeat that i love Jons paper!
I think ill ask him via mail.

Caol_ila wrote:(guess JA has some friends in the business) for 15â?¬ and ask his exact catching place...)

I (along with most importers) have GREAT difficulty finding this level of information out, especially for new or unusual fish. IMO, it also is so prone to inaccuracy that I would have to say it risks the integrity of a paper. You might just get the drainage system, but its no substitute for hard data.

Jools