Pellona flavipinnis (Valenciennes, 1837)

Vera-Alcaraz, Héctor S. & Emhart Vuletich, Jimmy D., 2016, Records of clupeiform fishes from Paraguay., Ichthyological Contributions of PecesCriollos 46, pp. 1-6 : 3-5

Pellona flavipinnis (Valenciennes, 1837)

Synonyms. Pristigaster flavipinnis Valenciennes, 1837 . Pellona orbignyana Valenciennes, 1847 .

Morphology. Head laterally compressed; straight dorsal profile; snout short, tip notched dorsally. Mouth small, superior, perpendicular to body axis; teeth minute; maxilla long, deep, two supra-maxillae, one hypo-maxilla; dentary projected, deep, articulation of lower jaw in front of eye position. Body elongated, highly compressed laterally, convex dorsal and highly convex ventral profile, greatest body depth at vertical through dorsal-fin origin. Body scales small. Belly scutes prominent, sharp. Pelvic fin present, small, shorter than half-pectoral length, axillary scale present. Anal-fin origin posterior to dorsal-fin position; anal-fin base long, almost equal caudal-peduncle length.

Measurements. Body Depth 28 to 32 % SL.

Counts. Pre-pelvic body scutes 21 to 23, post-pelvic body scutes 11 to 13, total 30 to 35 scutes (5). Lower gillrakers 26 to 29, upper gillrakers 14 to 15, total gillrakers 40 to 43 (4). Anal-fin rays iv + 34 to 37, total 38 to 41 (5). Scales 65 to 70 (4) in lateral series.

Coloration in alcohol. No distinctive color pattern, body brown. Dark brown cromatophores densely arranged in mouth, dorsum of head, and upward of body, spacely arranged below eye and on midline body. Pectoral, pelvic, anal, and caudal fin dark brown, cromatophores densely arranged on distal margins.

Distribution. Lago Ypacaraí, Río Salado drainage, Río Paraguay basin ( Figure 3 , red dots).

Examined material. All from Paraguay: Departamento Central: MNHNP 32, alc. 3, Itauguá, Lago Ypacaraí a 6 km Sureste de Areguá. MNHNP 33, alc. 1, Lago Ypacaraí. MNHNP 34, alc, 1, Areguá, Lago Ypacaraí.

The genus Lycengraulis Günther, 1868 comprises five valid species entirely distributed in Neotropical region: Lycengraulis batesii (Günther, 1868) , Lycengraulis figueiredoi Loeb & Alcântara, 2013 , Lycengraulis grossidens (Spix & Agassiz, 1829) , Lycengraulis limnichthys Schultz, 1949 , and Lycengraulis poeyi (Kner, 1863) ( Eschmeyer et al., 2016) . L. grossidens is the most widespread Neotropical species, distributed in most river basins of South and Central America. It is followed by L. figueiredoi which is distributed in the Amazonas, Orinoco, and Guianas. Next is L. poeyi which inhabits Pacific River Basins from El Salvador to Peru. Finally, species with restricted distributions are L. figueiredoi (Amazonas in Brazil) and L. limnichthys (Lago Maracaibo in Venezuela).

The genus Pellona comprises severals species with a wide distribution in the tropics across the world, but only with three Neotropical valid species: Pellona flavipinnis (Valenciennes, 1837) , Pellona castelnaeana Valenciennes, 1847 , and Pellona harroweri (Fowler, 1917) ( Whitehead, 1985) . P. flavipinnis is the most widespread freshwater Neotropical species, ranging from the Amazonas to the La Plata basins. The other freshwater species, P. castalnaeana , is restricted to the Amazonas basin. Finally, P. harroweri is a marine species but entering estuaries, it distribution is the Western Atlantic ranging from Panama to Southern Brazil.

Records of Lycengraulis grossidens from the Paraguayan territory consist merely in listing of species. The first record was done by Boulenger (1896) under Engraulis olidus without giving a precise locality. Ramlow (1989) also listed L. olidus from the Lago Ypacaraí. This author did not provided data of the examined material, but we believe this report includes the material that she analyzed. Insaurralde et al. (2012, 2013) listed L. simulator from Lago Ypacaraí, Jejuí, and Tebicuary basins. The name E. olidus and L. simulator were placed under synonymy of L. grossidens by Whitehead et al. (1988). Other listings were provided by Mandelburger et al. (1996) from Villeta, Lago Ypacaraí, and Ríos Tebicuary and Tebicuary-mí. This report also includes material from those localities, so we conclude that the specimens here examined are the same from the 1996 listing. Vera & Castillo (2006) listed L. grossidens for the Río Paraguay based in a compilation of available literature. Neris et al. (2008) also listed this species from the Río Manduvirá. We add new records to the distribution of L. grossidens in Paraguay, including the Río Paraná on its lower portion.

The other clupeiform fish listed from the Paraguayan territory is Pellona flavipinnis , first provided by Ramlow (1989) from the Lago Ypacaraí and Río Paraná upstream to the Itaipú Dam. This species was also reported from the Lago Ypacaraí by Mandelburger et al. (1996) and Insaurralde et al. (2013). Neris et al. (2008) listed this species to the Río Manduvirá. After examining specimens from the MNHNP, we assumed that the present report confirms the listings of Ramlow (1989) (with exception the record upstream to the Itaipú Dam, specimen not found) and Mandelburger et al. (1996).

Figures

fig. 3. Map of Paraguay showing the geographical distribution of Pellona flavipinnis (red) and Lycengraulis grossidens (green)