A new species of Anchoviella (Clupeiformes: Engraulidae) from the western Amazon River in Peru, with comments on congeners in the Peruvian Amazon River

Abstract

Anchoviella hernanni sp. nov. is described from the upper Amazon River basin, in tributaries of the Marañon, Ucayali and Madre de Dios river drainages that drain the Peruvian Andes. The new taxon can be distinguished from all congeners except Anchoviella jamesi, Anchoviella manamensis and Anchoviella perezi, by having 12-15 gill rakers in the lower branch of the first gill arch (v·16-35) and from those species by the distance between verticals through the posterior margin of the orbit to the posterior margin of the upper jaw 9·5-14·8% head length; L (v. up to 6·0% L ). An updated identification key of all freshwater species of Anchoviella and morphological comparisons between all species of the genus occurring in Peru are provided.

Redescription of Anchoviella cayennensis (Puyo, 1945) (Clupeiformes: Engraulidae), with the synonymization of Anchoviella sanfranciscana Barbosa, Gomes da Silva, da Rocha Araújo & Carvalho, 2017 and remarks on Anchoviella perfasciata (Poey, 1860)

“…A total of 191 specimens of Anchoviella from Brazil, Cuba, French Guiana, Martinique and the United States were analysed. Specimens were tentatively identified based on literature (Whitehead, 1985; Whitehead et al ., 1988; Loeb, 2012, Loeb, 2013; Loeb & Figueiredo, 2014; Barbosa et al ., 2017; Loeb et al ., 2018) and geographic distribution (Figure 1), resulting in the pre‐identification of 131 specimens as A. cayennensis (South America) and 40 as A. perfasciata (Central and North America), including its holotype (MCZ 17965). The type series of A. sanfranciscana , which includes the holotype and 19 paratypes, all collected in the estuary of the São Francisco River, Brazil (Barbosa et al ., 2017), was also examined.…”

“…Counts and measurements were taken according to Hubbs and Lagler (1947) and Loeb et al . (2018). SL and head length (HL) measurements are expressed in millimetres.…”

“…The Engraulidae includes 17 genera and c . 170 species of the typically small‐ to medium‐sized coastal and schooling fishes commonly known as anchovies (Hata et al ., 2022; Loeb et al ., 2018; Whitehead et al ., 1988). Anchovies are relevant to artisanal and industrial fisheries on a global scale ( e.g ., Birge et al ., 2021), with recent catches of just a single species, Engraulis ringens (eastern Pacific of South America), reaching up to 12 million tonnes (FAO, 2020).…”

“…Anchoviella Fowler 1911 is a New World genus of Engraulinae that includes 15 valid species exclusively found in coastal marine and freshwater environments (Barbosa et al ., 2017; Bloom & Lovejoy, 2012; Loeb, 2012, 2013; Loeb et al ., 2018; Van der Sleen & Bloom, 2018). In the last comparative taxonomic review of the Engraulidae, Whitehead et al .…”

“…Six coastal marine or estuarine species of Anchoviella are currently recognized as valid in the western Atlantic (Loeb et al ., 2018). Anchoviella cayennensis (Puyo, 1945) was described based on two specimens collected in the lower portion of the Cayenne River, French Guiana.…”