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Issue: Vol. 2751 No. 1: 28 Jan. 2011
Type: Articles
Published: 2011-01-28
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.2751.1.4
Page range: 63–64
Abstract views: 42
PDF downloaded: 4

Designation of the lectotype of Poecilia amazonica Garman, 1895 (Cyprinodontiformes, Poeciliidae) and discussion of its nomenclatural status

Laboratório de Ictiologia Sistemática (UNT), Universidade Federal do Tocantins, Campus de Porto Nacional, P.O. Box 136, 77500-000 Porto Nacional, TO, Brazil
Núcleo de Gestão Ambiental, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Av. Pasteur, 458, sala 512-F, 22290-240 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Fish Cyprinodontiformes Poeciliidae

Abstract

Poecilia amazonica Garman, 1895 was described based on syntypes collected at Santa Cruz, Pará, Brazil by Mr. Caleb Cooke in October 1859. The type-series was originally deposited at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, under the catalog numbers MCZ 27573 (128 ex.), and MCZ 69635 (97 ex.). Five specimens were subsequently transferred to University of Michigan Museum of Zoology (UMMZ 146750), and six specimens were sent to the National Museum of Natural History (USNM 120286). Carl Hubbs examined parts of the type-series and considered the syntypes to be Micropoecilia parae (Eigenmann, 1894), as inferred from label information handwritten by Hubbs in 1944 and placed inside the jars of lots MCZ 27573 and UMMZ 146750 (ex MCZ 27573). However, Hubbs did not publish anything concerning the nomenclatural status of P. amazonica. Consequently, the name Poecilia amazonica has been considered valid by several authors since Garman's description (e.g. Rosen & Bailey, 1963; Meyer, 1993; Rodriguez, 1997; Parenti et al., 1999; Lucinda, 2003; and Lucinda & Reis, 2005).

References

  1. Eigenmann, C.H. (1894) Notes on some South American fishes. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 7, 625–637.

    Garman, S. (1895) The cyprinodonts. Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 19, 1–179, pls. 1–12.

    Lucinda, P.H.F. (2003) Poeciliidae. In: Reis, R.E., Kullander, S.O. & Ferraris, Jr., C. J. (Eds), Check list of the freshwater fishes of South and Central America. Edipucrs, Porto Alegre, pp. 555–581.

    Lucinda, P.H.F. & Reis, R.E. (2005) Systematics of the subfamily Poeciliinae Bonaparte (Cyprinidontiformes: Poeciliidae), with an emphasis on the tribe Cnesterodontini Hubbs. Neotropical Ichthyology, 3, 1–60.

    Meyer, M.K. (1993) Reinstatement of Micropoecilia Hubbs, 1926, with a redescription of M. bifurca (Eigenmann, 1909) from Northeast South America (Teleostei, Cyprinodontiformes: Poeciliidae). Zoologische Abhandlungen Museum für Tierkunde Dresden, 47, 121–130.

    Parenti, L.R., Clayton, J.M. & Howe, J.C. (1999) Catalog of type specimens of Recent fishes in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 9: Family Poeciliidae (Teleostei: Cyprinodontiformes). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 604, i–iii + 1–22.

    Poeser, F.N. (2003) From the Amazon R. to the Amazon molly and back again. The evolution and systematics of the genus Poecilia Bloch and Schneider, 1801 (“Thesis”). 180 pp.

    Rodriguez, C.M. (1997) Phylogenetic analysis of the tribe Poeciliini (Cyprinodontiformes: Poeciliidae). Copeia, 1997, 663–679.

    Rosen, D.E. & Bailey, R.M. (1963) The poeciliid fishes (Cyprinodontiformes), their structure, zoogeography, and systematics. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 126, 1–176.