NOTES ON GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION Check List 9(5): 1081–1083, 2013 © 2013 Check List and Authors ISSN 1809-127X (available at www.checklist.org.br) Chec List Journal of species lists and distribution First record of Megalechis picta (Müller and Troschel, 1849) (Siluriformes: Callichthyidae) in the upper Rio Paraná basin, Brazil Luiz Fernando Caserta Tencatt 1*, Weferson Júnio da Graça 2 and Carla Simone Pavanelli 1,3 1 Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Coleção Ictiológica do Núcleo de Pesquisas em Limnologia, Ictiologia e Aquicultura, Av. Colombo, 5790, 87020-900 Maringá, Paraná, Brasil. 2 Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Centro de Ciências Biológicas, Departamento de Biologia e Coleção Ictiológica do Núcleo de Pesquisas em Limnologia, Ictiologia e Aquicultura, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Av. Colombo, 5790, 87020-900 Maringá, Paraná, Brasil. 3 Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Coleção Ictiológica do Núcleo de Pesquisas em Limnologia, Ictiologia e Aquicultura e Programa de PósGraduação em Ecologia de Ambientes Aquáticos Continentais, Av. Colombo, 5790, 87020-900 Maringá, Paraná, Brasil. * Corresponding author. E-mail: luiztencatt@hotmail.com Abstract: Herein we report the first record of Megalechis picta in the upper Rio Paraná basin based in a single specimen captured in the Corumbá IV Reservoir, Rio Paranaíba drainage, State of Goiás, Brazil. Additional discussion about geographic distribution of congeners is also provided. Callichthyidae is composed by catfishes with two longitudinal series of lateral plates and harbors about 200 valid species, being currently allocated in two subfamilies, Callichthyinae and Corydoradinae (Reis 2003; Eschmeyer 2013). Callichthyinae comprehends five valid genus, Callichthys Scopolli, 1777, Dianema Cope, 1871, Hoplosternum Gill, 1858, Lepthoplosternum Reis, 1997 and Megalechis Reis, 1997 (Reis 1998; 2003) and Corydoradinae three valid genus, Aspidoras Ihering, 1907, Corydoras Lacépède, 1803 and Scleromystax Günther, 1864 (Britto, 2003). Reis (1997) conducted a taxonomic review of Hoplosternum, describing two new genera, Lepthoplosternum and Megalechis, and three new species. Megalechis is clearly distinguished from the other Callichthyinae by possessing the unique combination of features: first soft ray of dorsal fin unbranched (vs. branched); anal fin with an additional unbranched ray; caudal fin truncated; and a very elongated pectoral-fin spine in adult males (Reis 1997). That author allocated the former Hoplosternum thoracatum species group in Megalechis, which became composed by M. personata (Ranzani, 1841) and M. thoracata (Valenciennes, 1840). Reis et al. (2005) after analyzing the holotypes of Callichthys thoracatus and Callichthys longifilis Valenciennes, 1840, rearranged Megalechis species, considering M. personata as junior-synonym of M. thoracata and M. picta as a valid species, also providing a new diagnosis to Megalechis species. Megalechis picta is distributed over Amazon and Orinoco river basins, as well as coastal rivers of the Guianas and northern Brazil (Reis et al. 2005). Through the analysis of a single specimen captured in the region of Corumbá IV Reservoir, affluent of the Rio Paranaíba, State of Goiás, a first record for M. picta in the upper Rio Paraná basin is stated herein. The unique specimen of Megalechis picta (Figure 1) was collected by Roberto Leandro da Silva (Systema Naturae Consultoria Ambiental), 12/15/2006, in the Corumbá IV Reservoir, at the Rio Corumbá, tributary to the Rio Paranaíba, geographic coordinates 16°18’48” S, 48°11’39” W, upper Rio Paraná basin, State of Goiás, Luziânia municipality, and hosted in the Coleção Ictiológica do Nupélia, NUP 8787, 1, 170.0 mm of standard length (SL), available at: http://peixe.nupelia.uem.br. The species identification was performed following Reis et al. (2005). A map with the record of M. picta at the upper Rio Paraná basin is provided (Figure 2). Fishes were collected with permission of the Agência Goiana de Meio Ambiente ‒ no 40/2006. Figure 1. Specimen of Megalechis picta, NUP 8787, 170.0 mm SL, collected in Corumbá IV Reservoir. 1081 Tencatt et al. | Megalechis picta in the upper Rio Paraná basin Megalechis picta is native from Amazon and Orinoco river basins, as well as coastal rivers of the Guianas and northern Brazil. This is the first record of M. picta in the upper Rio Paraná basin. Megalechis thoracata can be distinguished from M. picta by the smaller dorsal-fin spine, generally higher number of anal-fin rays (six, rarely five vs. five, rarely four) and mainly by the color pattern of caudal fin (see Reis et al. 2005). In M. thoracata the base of caudalfin displays a whitish band and the remaining part is dusky or black spotted, while M. picta presents caudal-fin base blackened, with a conspicuous dark bar in the middle and the distal border also blackened, the regions between the blackened bands are clearly whitish yellow. Langeani et al. (2007) provided a list of species for the upper Rio Paraná basin and mentioned the non-native occurrence of M. personata (=M. thoracata, see Reis et al. 2005 for more details). Other studies also listed M. personata in the upper Rio Paraná basin (e.g. Castro et al. 2004; Perez-Júnior and Garavello 2007; Apone et al. 2008; Oliveira et al. 2009). Castro et al. (2004) and Apone et al. (2008) provided photographs of the species making possible to confirm the identification of the Megalechis captured in those studies that are certainly M. thoracata. Langeani et al. (2007) attributed the occurrence of M. personata (= M. thoracata) in the upper Rio Paraná to the building of the Itaipu dam, which submerged the Sete Quedas Falls and provided a mix between the ichthyofaunas from upper and middle Rio Paraná basins. Nevertheless, that species does not occur naturally in the middle or lower Rio Paraná basins, where it was possibly introduced due being used as live bait. Nupélia’s fish collection received several specimens collected by Furnas staff in the 1970’s decade in the Rio Corumbá and none Megalechis specimen was found. Additionally, during five years (1996-2000) Nupélia staff performed fish samples in the Corumbá Reservoir area and none specimen of Megalechis was captured. The list of collected species was published by Pavanelli et al. (2007) and the vouchers are housed in the Nupélia’s fish collection. The Rio Paranaíba basin has several endemic species (see Pavanelli and Britski 1999; Silveira et al. 2008), however, there are recent mentions on the occurrence of some introduced species, especially those with importance in fishing or aquaculture (i.e. Cichla spp. and Leporinus macrocephalus Garavello and Britski, 1988), live-bait (Gymnotus spp.) or aquarium specimens, such as Xiphophorus hellerii Heckel, 1848 and Poecilia reticulata Peters, 1859, which are typically captured in abundance. Zawadzki et al. (2008) also reported some sporadic nonnative species in the Rio Meia Ponte, affluent to the Rio Paranaíba as well, such as: Hypostomus faveolus Zawadzki, Birindelli and Lima, 2008, from Xingu and Tocantins rivers basins; Pterygoplichthys joselimaianus (Weber, 1991) from the Rio Tocantins basin; and Hyphessobrycon moniliger Moreira, Lima and Costa, 2002 from the Tocantins and upper Tapajós rivers basins. The occurrence of M. picta in the Rio Corumbá can be attributed to its use as live bait for angling or its release in the river by a fishkeeper. Recently, Ferreira et al. (2011) registered M. picta in a tributary to the Rio Araguaia, relatively near to the region of the upper Rio Paraná tributaries in Goiás State, being possible that the occurrence of this species is due to transpositions between those basins. Currently, it is merely speculative to say whether the species was able to establish itself in the basin or what could be the impact on the wildlife of the Rio Corumbá. Despite of that, this note intends rather to call attention that species introductions and transpositions between basins, deliberated or not, which have been more and more common, in most cases may have a damaging effect on native wildlife. We strongly recommend that this kind of action be severely discouraged. Figure 2. Map showing the sample site of Megalechis picta (NUP 8787), the Corumbá IV Reservoir, upper Rio Paraná basin (red star). 1082 Tencatt et al. | Megalechis picta in the upper Rio Paraná basin Acknowledgments: The authors are grateful to the Nupélia for providing logistical support. To Roberto Leandro da Silva for the donation of Megalechis picta specimen. The Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) provided fellowships to LFCT. The Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) and Fundação Araucária provided grants to CSP and WJG, respectively. Literature Cited Apone, F., A.K. Oliveira and J.C. Garavello. 2008. Composição da ictiofauna do rio Quilombo, tributário do rio Mogi-Guaçu, bacia do alto rio Paraná, sudeste do Brasil. Biota Neotropica 8(1): 93-107. Britto, M. R. 2003. Phylogeny of the subfamily Corydoradinae Hoedeman, 1952 (Siluriformes: Callichthyidae), with a definition of its genera. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 153: 119-154. Castro, R.M.C., L. Casatti, H.F. Santos, A.L.A. Melo, L.S.F. Martins, K.M. Ferreira, F.Z. Gibran, R.C. Benine, M. Carvalho, A.C. Ribeiro, T.X. Abreu, F.A. Bockmann, G.Z.P. Dardis, R. Stopiglia and F. Langeani. 2004. Estrutura e composição da ictiofauna de riachos da bacia do Rio Grande, no Estado de São Paulo, Sudeste do Brasil. Biota Neotropica 4(1): 1-12. Eschmeyer, W.N. 2013. Catalog of Fishes. Electronic database accessible at http://research.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/ fishcatmain.asp. Captured on 25 March 2013. Ferreira, E., J. Zuanon, G. Santos and S. Amadio. 2011. The fish fauna of the Parque Estadual do Cantão, Araguaia River, State of Tocantins, Brazil. Biota Neotropica 11(2): 277-284. Langeani, F., R.M. Corrêa e Castro, O.T. Oyakawa, O.A. Shibatta, C.S. Pavanelli and L. Casatti. 2007. Diversidade da ictiofauna do alto Rio Paraná: composição atual e perspectivas futuras. Biota Neotropica 7(3): 181-197. Oliveira, A.K., F. Apone, J.L.O. Birindelli and O.R. Perez Jr. 2009. Fish, tributaries of middle Rio Mogi Guaçu, upper rio Paraná basin, São Paulo state, Southeastern Brazil. Check List 5(3): 488-494. Pavanelli, C.S. and H.A. Britski. 1999. Description of a new species of Steindachnerina (Teleostei: Characiformes: Curimatidae) from the upper Rio Paraná basin, Brazil. Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters 10(3): 211-216. Pavanelli, C.S., W.J. da Graça, C.H. Zawadzki, H.A. Britski, H.A. Vidotti, G.S. Avelino and S. Veríssimo. 2007. Fishes from the Corumbá Reservior, Paranaíba River drainage, upper Paraná River basin, State of Goiás, Brazil. Check List 3(1): 58-64. Perez-Júnior, O.R. and J.C. Garavello. 2007. Ictiofauna do Ribeirão do Pântano, afluente do Rio Mogi-Guaçu, Bacia do Alto Rio Paraná, São Paulo, Brasil. Iheringia série Zoologia 97(3): 328-335. Reis, R.E. 1997. Revision of the Neotropical genus Hoplosternum (Ostariophysi: Siluriformes: Callichthyidae) with the description of two new genera and three new species. Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters 7(4): 299-326. Reis, R.E. 1998. Anatomy and phylogenetic analysis of the neotropical callichthyid catfishes (Ostariophysi, Siluriformes). Zoological Journal of the Linnaean Society 124: 105-168. Reis, R.E. 2003. Family Callichthyidae (armored catfishes); p. 291-309. In Check List of the Freshwater Fishes of South and Central America. R.E. Reis, S.O. Kullander, and C.J. Ferraris, Jr. (ed.). Porto Alegre, Edipucrs. Reis, R.E., P.Y. Le Bail and J.H.A. Mol. 2005. New arrangement in the synonymy of Megalechis Reis, 1997 (Siluriformes: Callichthyidae). Copeia 2005(3): 678-682. Silveira, L.G.G., F. Langeani, W.J. da Graça, C.S. Pavanelli and P.A. Buckup. 2008: Characidium xanthopterum (Ostariophysi: Characiformes: Crenuchidae): a new species from the central Brazilian Plateau. Neotropical Ichthyology 6(2): 169-174. Zawadzki, C.H., J.L.O. Birindelli and F.C.T. Lima. 2008. A new pale-spotted species of Hypostomus Lacépède (Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from the rio Tocantins and Xingu basins in central Brazil. Neotropical Ichthyology 6(3): 395-402. Received: April 2013 Accepted: September 2013 Published online: October 2013 Editorial responsibility: Tiago Pinto Carvalho 1083