Tencatt, LFC, Britto, MR, Isbrücker, IJH & CS Pavanelli. (2022). Taxonomy of the armored catfish genus Aspidoras (Siluriformes: Callichthyidae) revisited, with the description of a new species. Neotrop. Ichthyol., 20(3): e220040
comprises 25 species currently considered as valid, being widely distributed in Brazil, occurring from the upper rio Paraná basin in São Paulo to coastal basins of Ceará. After Nijssen, Isbrücker’s review more than 40 years ago, no extensive work regarding the taxonomy of Aspidoras was conducted. Our paper presents a comprehensive taxonomic revision of the genus, based primarily on the extensive material that has been collected since then. Considering the new diagnosis plus the available phylogenetic data, A. pauciradiatus and A. virgulatus are transferred to Corydoras and Scleromystax, respectively. New synonymies are proposed: A. eurycephalus and A. taurus with A. albater; A. menezesi and A. spilotus with A. raimundi; and A. microgalaeus and A. marianae with A. poecilus. Additionally, a new species from the Araguaia and Paraguay river basins is described, which can be distinguished from its congeners by the morphology of its complex vertebra and infraorbital 1. Thereby, the number of valid species within Aspidoras was reduced from 25 to 18. Redescriptions for A. albater, A. belenos, A. depinnai, A. fuscoguttatus, A. lakoi, A. maculosus, A. poecilus, A. psammatides, A. raimundi, and A. velites are provided. An identification key to the species of Aspidoras is also provided.
Reading through it I find a mention of @Silurus too who took some type pictures - awesome. The work is licensed under an open creative commons licence too, so we should be able to disseminate a lot of the info quickly to help aquarists. I've got a few other fish to fry, but will keep an eye on it.
As an aside, I've moved Corydoras(ln1) to just be Corydoras in line with Aspidoras and Scleromystax which are also Corydoradinine lineages but no need to over-complicate these with the numbers to keep them apart.
I _think_ I've got the genus up-to-date. There are still a number of C and CW numbers without homes, but they don't seem to be mentioned in the paper. Please correct anything I've missed.
Jools
PS Does anyone else have trouble not calling the new species Aspidoras Alderaan?
 pauciradiatus/g/s/1.jpg)
