Erythrinidae

Júnior, Horácio Ferreira Júlio, Tós, Claudenice Dei, Agostinho, Ângelo Antonio & Pavanelli, Carla Simone, 2009, A massive invasion of fish species after eliminating a natural barrier in the upper rio Paraná basin, Neotropical Ichthyology 7 (4), pp. 709-718 : 713

Erythrinidae

Three erythrinid genera currently occur in the rio Paraná basin, but the greatest number of species in this family is found in the Amazon basin, following Oyakawa (2003). Erythinus erythrinus and Hoplerythrinus unitaeniatus , native in the lower rio Paraná basin, may have dispersed to the upper part after the barrier elimination, but they may have also been introduced by anglers as live bait ( Langeani et al., 2007), or both. Another erythrinid widespread in the entire Neotropical region, traditionally identified as Hoplias malabaricus , also occurs in both the upper and lower Paraná. However, Bertollo et al. (2000), studying samples previously identified as H. malabaricus , found seven different cytotypes scattered in several Neotropical basins, which they labeled by alphabetic letters. These cytotypes remain taxonomically unstudied and, therefore, are still not formally described. Sympatric cytotypes A and D naturally occur in the upper rio Paraná basin. Cytotype C, which formerly only occurred in the lower Paraná basin, has been caught in the upper Paraná since the barrier removal. In the upper rio Paraná floodplain, the introduced cytotype C is presently more abundant than cytotypes A and D (Pazza & Júlio Jr., 2003). Graça & Pavanelli (2007) preliminarily provided a brief description of the three cytotypes, discriminating them in a key for identification and calling cytotypes C, D and A Hoplias sp. 1 , Hoplias sp. 2 and Hoplias sp. 3 , respectively.