The plec, commonly known as the L134 or leopard frog plec, does no longer need to go around with its head bowed… It now has a proper scientific name! The name was given by Brazillian icthyologists.

In a recently published article in the journal Zootaxa, Renildo de Oliveira and a group of his cronies name the plec, which hails from the Tapajos River drainage, Peckoltia compta, after its bold color pattern. You see in Latin, comptus means ornamented or adorned.

Peckoltia compta stands out from like species as it sports a bold color pattern, which consists of large horizontal black bars on its body, and stout vertical bars on its snout and head. It also has a flashy line inside each of these dashing stripes which run from the tip of the snout, to under the eyes.

It also sets itself apart in the following ways; it has tiny dark brown polka dots on only the fin rays.

These plecs were snagged in clear fresh water with a moderate to high current over some rocks. You could even say, that plecs prefer their water “on the rocks”.

If you would like to learn more on this absolutely enthralling subject, check out the paper: de Oliveira, RR, J Zuanon, LR Py-Daniel & MS Rocha (2010) Peckoltia compta, a new species of catfish from the Brazilian Amazon, rio Tapajós basin (Siluriformes: Loricariidae). Zootaxa 2534, pp. 48–56.

For the first time since 1947, a new species of cartilaginous fish has been described from Californian waters. The new species – Hydrolagus melanophasma – belongs to a group of sharks known as Chimaeras or ghostsharks.

Chimaeras are fairly closely related to the true sharks, but their evolutionary lineage branched off from the true sharks nearly 400 million years ago. Just like sharks, ghostsharks have cartilage skeletons instead of bony skeletons and they carry out internal fertilization using claspers. Unlike the true sharks however, males of the Chimaera group are fitted with retractable sexual appendages on the forehead and in front of the pelvic fins. Most known species also have a venomous spine in front of the dorsal fin.

The new species, the Eastern Pacific black ghostshark, was caught and preserved as early as the 1960s but hasn’t been formally named and described until know since its taxonomic relationships with other Chimaeras remained unclear. It is now placed in the genus Hydrolagus – the water rabbits – a genus named after the grinding tooth plates used by its members; plates somewhat similar to the teeth of a rabbit.

You can find out more about Hydrolagus melanophasma in the September issue of the journal Zootaxa. The article in which the new species was described is the result of the combined efforts of a team of scientists, including Academy Research Associates David Ebert and Douglas J. Long, graduate student Kelsey James from the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, and Dominique Didier from Millersville University in Pennsylvania.

A new species of wrasse living off the Brazilian coast has been described by Osmar Luiz, Jr, Carlos Ferreira and Luiz Rocha. The new species has been named Halichoeres sazimai after Brazilian ichthyologist Ivan Sazima from Universidade Estadual de Campinas in São Paolo.

Halichoeres sazimai inhabit the Western South Atlantic off the southern and south-eastern coasts of Brazil where researchers regularly saw it foraging solitary on sand bottoms immediately adjacent to the lower end of rocky reefs. Occasionally, harems consisting of 5-10 specimens were also spotted. The fish was sometimes observed over the reefs as well, but usually stayed at a dept of at least 20 metres. According to the researchers, this may have to do with a preference for water colder than 18° C.

Halichoeres sazimai separates itself from its close relatives by having a white body adorned with a zigzag patterned midline stripe which is yellow or golden in females and juveniles and black and brownish in terminal males.

Sorry i have not found a pic of this species.

The paper has been published in the journal Zootaxa.
“OJ, Jr, Luiz, CEL Ferreira and LA Rocha (2009) Halichoeres sazimai, a new species of wrasse (Perciformes: Labridae) from the Western South Atlantic. Zootaxa 2092, pp. 37–46.”

Chinese ichthyologists Yang, Chen and Yang have described three new species of snow trout in a paper[1] published in the journal Zootaxa[2]. All three species have been described from material previously identified as one single species, Schizothorax griseus. True trouts belong to the Salmoninae subfamily in the Salmonidae family, but snow trouts are members of the family Cyprinidae.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Cypriniformes
Family: Cyprinidae
Genus: Schizothorax

New species: Schizothorax beipanensis

Schizothorax heterophysallidos

Schizothorax nudiventris

Schizothorax beipanensis

Schizothorax beipanensis is found in southern China where it inhabits the Beipan River drainage, a part of the Pearl River drainage. It has been encountered in both slow-flowing deep pools and fast-flowing rivers with clear water and over a wide range of different bottom substrate, from mud and sand to rocks, boulders and pebbles.

Schizothorax beipanensis differs from its close relatives by having well-developed upper and lower lips (the lower lip is actually tri-lobed), no horny sheath on the lower jaw, and a continuous postlabial groove with a minute median lobe.

Schizothorax heterophysallidos

Just like Schizothorax beipanensis, the snow trout Schizothorax heterophysallidos is found in the Pearl River drainage in southern China, but it lives in the river drainage of Nanpan, not Beipan. Schizothorax heterophysallidos lives in small streams where the bottom consists of sand and pebbles.

The name heterophysallidos is derived from the unusual swim bladder of this fish; physallis is the Greek word for bladder and heteros means different. In addition to the swim bladder (the posterior chamber of the air bladder is three to six times longer than the anterior chamber), Schizothorax heterophysallidos can be recognized on its well-developed and trilobed lower lip, thin upper lip, and blunt snout. It has a continuous postlabial groove with a minute median lobe and the last unbranched dorsal-fin ray has a strong lower part. In mature specimens, the abdomen lacks scales.

Schizothorax nudiventris

Schizothorax nudiventris also lives in southern China, but in the upper parts of the Mekong River drainage. The Mekong basin is one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world. More than 1200 species of fish have been identified here and the number is believed to increase as the area becomes more thoroughly explored by science.

Schizothorax nudiventris has a well-developed and trilobed lower lip, thin upper lip, blunt snout, and continuous postlabial groove. The body is decorated with irregular black spots on the sides, and the last one-quarter of the last unbranched dorsal-fin ray is soft. In mature specimens, the abdomen has no scales, and it is this feature that has given the fish its name nudiventris. Nudus is the Latin word for naked, while venter means abdomen.