A new cryptic species of South American freshwater pufferfish of the genus Colomesus (Tetraodontidae), based on both morphology and DNA data.

ABSTRACT: The Tetraodontidae are an Acantomorpha fish family with circumglobal distribution composed of 189 species grouped in 19 genera, occurring in seas, estuaries, and rivers between the tropical and temperate regions. Of these, the genus Colomesus is confined to South America, with what have been up to now considered only two species. C. asellus is spread over the entire Amazon, Tocantins-Araguaia drainages, and coastal environments from the Amazon mouth to Venezuela, and is the only freshwater puffers on that continent. C. psittacus is found in coastal marine and brackish water environments from Cuba to the northern coast of South America as far south as to Sergipe in Brazil. In the present contribution we used morphological data along with molecular systematics techniques to investigate the p

SUBMITTER: Amaral CR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3770603 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature