Bryconops inpai
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Characiformes
Family: Iguanodectidae
Genus: Bryconops
Species:
B. inpai
Binomial name
Bryconops inpai
Knöppel, Junk & Géry, 1968

Bryconops inpai is a small freshwater fish native to the rivers of South America. It only lives in two particular river systems - the Casiquiare and Negro - which means that its range is restricted to the northern half of the continent. It has indistinct humeral spots (patches near the pectoral fins), and is bluish-silver in life, which is unusual for members of Bryconops; they are more often plain silver or greenish-silver.

Because it is native to water types with little endemic plant life, most of its diet originates outside of the river system. It primarily preys on insects, such as ants and termites, that fall from trees above the water, and sometimes gets the opportunity to prey on aquatic larvae. Specimens will eat plants if available, mostly seeds and flowers.

Description

Some of the first specimens reached a length of 9.78 cm (3.85 in) in standard length (without the tail fin included).[1] More often than not, however, B. inpai reaches a maximum of 10 cm (3.9 in) in total length (with the tail fin included).[2] This places it slightly above the modal length of Bryconops as a genus (about 7 to 8 cm standard length, 2.1 to 3.8 inches, tail fin not measured).[3] The body is somewhat deep in comparison to related species, similar to B. marabaixo, B. munduruku, and B. cyrtogaster.[4]

Its adipose fin is entirely black, and its caudal fin is dusky, lacking any marks on either lobe.[5][6] Like many other members of Bryconops, it has two humeral spots near each pectoral fin, though this nonetheless allows it to be differentiated from congeners with one or no spots.[7] Overall, its scales are a bluish-silver (as opposed to plain silver or greenish-silver), which is another trait that sets it apart from other Bryconops.[1] A study in 1993 (Chernoff, Buckup, Machado-Allison, and Royero) noted a few different color patterns in gathered specimens of B. inpai, which points to the possibility of multiple species currently considered synonymous, but further research on the subject has not been done.[8]

Taxonomy

Since its description by Hans-armin Knöppel, Wolfgang Junk, and Jacques Géry in 1968, B. inpai has been considered a member of the subgenus Creatochanes.[1] While Creatochanes itself was once considered a separate genus all on its own, it has since been synonymized with Bryconops and is now considered a subgenus.[9] The high likelihood of such an occurrence was addressed in the original paper describing B. inpai, which is why it was designated as such in the first place.[1]

Bryconops inpai is in the family Iguanodectidae, which is a fairly recent revival (2011) from the work of Carl Eigenmann.[10] Previously, the genus Bryconops was considered a member of the family Characidae, and several resources still list it as such (like ADW and ITIS);[11][12] however, its current placement is in Iguanodectidae, with Piabucus and Iguanodectes.[2][13][14] As such, B. inpai is considered an Iguanodectid fish.

Habitat and ecology

Bryconops inpai is endemic to the Casiquiare and Negro rivers of South America, which are both blackwater rivers. As is the case with many other members of Bryconops, this fondness for a blackwater habitat indicates that B. inpai does not have high-oxygen needs. Blackwater rivers are low in oxygen due to the fact that microbes use much of the available dissolved oxygen in the process of decay, which is what releases tannins into the water and gives it the characteristic color.[15][16]

Other members of Bryconops found in the Rio Negro include B. disruptus and B. humeralis, the latter of which is also found in the Casiquiare.[17][18]

Diet

Bryconops inpai's native range is made up of rivers with very little endemic plant life, which makes it inhospitable to many other species.[19] As such, B. inpai's diet largely consists of terrestrial insects that are washed into the river or fall in from trees hanging above.[1] This is in line with much of the rest of the genus, which is made up mostly of invertivores.[20] B. inpai also takes supplemental plant matter, largely in the form of flowers and seeds (which is also not uncommon in Bryconops).[1][20]

Conservation status

Bryconops inpai has not been evaluated by the IUCN.[2] However, its type locality (where it was first discovered) is within a protected region of the Amazon, the Ducke Reserve, and as such it has at least a small portion of territory under surveillance.[1] Nonetheless, the Rio Negro - as with many other rivers - is under threat from environmental hazards as a result of illegal gold mining in South America, which is a booming industry despite its dangers both to participants and to the environment.[21][22]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Knöppel, Hans-armin; Junk, Wolfgang; Géry, Jacques (January 1968). "Bryconops (Creatochanes) Inpai, A New Characoid Fish From The Central Amazon Region, With A Review Of The Genus Bryconops". Amazoniana. 1 (3): 231–246. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2022). "Bryconops inpai" in FishBase. October 2022 version.
  3. ↑ Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2022). Species of Bryconops in FishBase. October 2022 version.
  4. ↑ Silva‐Oliveira, Cárlison; Moreira, Cristiano R.; Lima, Flávio C. T.; Py‐Daniel, Lúcia Rapp (September 2020). "The true identity of Bryconops cyrtogaster (Norman), and description of a new species of Bryconops Kner (Characiformes: Iguanodectidae) from the Rio Jari, lower Amazon basin". Journal of Fish Biology. 97 (3): 860–868. doi:10.1111/jfb.14445. PMID 32584438. S2CID 220060299. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
  5. ↑ Wingert, Juliana M.; Malabarba, Luiz R. (2011). "A new species of Bryconops (Teleostei: Characidae) from the rio Madeira basin, Northern Brazil". Neotropical Ichthyology. 9 (3): 471–476. doi:10.1590/S1679-62252011000300002. hdl:10183/81588. ISSN 1679-6225.
  6. ↑ Chernoff, Barry; Machado-Allison, Antonio (13 December 2005). "Bryconops magoi and Bryconops collettei (Characiformes: Characidae), two new freshwater fish species from Venezuela, with comments on B. caudomaculatus (Günther)". Zootaxa. 1094 (1): 23. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1094.1.1. ISSN 1175-5334 – via Biotaxa.
  7. ↑ Silva-Oliveira, Cárlison; Canto, André Luiz C.; Ribeiro, Frank Raynner V. (30 July 2015). "Bryconops munduruku (Characiformes: Characidae), a new species of fish from the lower Tapajós River basin, Brazil". Zootaxa. 3994 (1): 133–141. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3994.1.7. PMID 26250264 – via Biotaxa.
  8. ↑ Chernoff, Barry; Buckup, Paulo Andreas; Machado-Allison, Antonio; Royero, Ramiro (March 1993). "Las especies del genero Bryconops Kner, 1858 en Venezuela (Teleostei, Characiformes)". Venezuelan Biological Act. 14 (3): 1–20. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  9. ↑ Chernoff, Barry; Machado-Allison, Antonio (23 February 2018). "Bryconops colaroja and B. colanegra, two new species from the Cuyuni and Caroni drainages of South America (Teleostei: Characidae)". Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters. 10 (4): 355–370. hdl:10872/17856. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  10. ↑ Oliveira, Claudio; Avelino, Gleisy S.; Abe, Kelly T.; Mariguela, Tatiane C.; Benine, Ricardo C.; Ortí, Guillermo; Vari, Richard P.; Corrêa e Castro, Ricardo M. (December 2011). "Phylogenetic relationships within the speciose family Characidae (Teleostei: Ostariophysi: Characiformes) based on multilocus analysis and extensive ingroup sampling". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 11 (1): 275. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-11-275. PMC 3190395. PMID 21943181.
  11. ↑ Myers, P.; Espinosa, R.; Parr, C. S.; Jones, T.; Hammond, G. S.; Dewey, T. A. "Bryconops inpai Classification". Animal Diversity Web. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  12. ↑ "Bryconops inpai (Knöppel, Junk and Géry, 1968)". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  13. ↑ Rees, Tony (31 December 2011). "IRMNG - Bryconops inpai (Knöppel, Junk and Géry, 1968)". International Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  14. ↑ Bailly, Nicolas (10 July 2017). "WoRMS taxon details - Bryconops inpai (Knöppel, Junk and Géry, 1968)". World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  15. ↑ Mehring, Andrew S.; Kuehn, Kevin A.; Tant, Cynthia J.; Pringle, Catherine M.; Lowrance, R. Richard; Vellidis, George (2014). "Contribution of surface leaf-litter breakdown and forest composition to benthic oxygen demand and ecosystem respiration in a South Georgia blackwater river". Freshwater Science. 33 (2): 377–389. doi:10.1086/675507. S2CID 85315129.
  16. ↑ "Hypoxic blackwater events and water quality". Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. Australian Government. 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  17. ↑ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2022). "Bryconops disruptus" in FishBase. October 2022 version.
  18. ↑ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2022). "Bryconops humeralis" in FishBase. October 2022 version.
  19. ↑ Küchler, Ivo L.; Miekeley, Norbert; Forsberg, Bruce R. (June 2000). "A contribution to the chemical characterization of rivers in the Rio Negro Basin, Brazil". Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society. 11 (3): 286–292. doi:10.1590/S0103-50532000000300015.
  20. 1 2 Echevarría, Gabriela; González, Nirson (November 2018). "Fish taxonomic and functional diversity in mesohabitats of the River Kakada, Caura National Park, Venezuela". Nature Conservation Research. 3 (Suppl. 2). doi:10.24189/ncr.2018.048. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  21. ↑ Klein, David (6 May 2022). "Interpol: Illegal Gold Mining is Devastating Latin America". OCCRP. Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  22. ↑ "Illegal Gold Mining". USAID. United States Agency for International Development. 28 June 2022. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
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