Checklist of the Inland Fishes of El Salvador

Abstract

The inland fish fauna of El Salvador and its distribution was originally described in 1925 by Samuel Hildebrand. That work has been the main source of information for freshwater fishes of El Salvador up to today. Based on the combination of an intensive literature review, electronic database searches, re-identification of museum specimens, and fieldwork, we hereby provide an updated checklist of the inland fishes of El Salvador. This checklist provides distributional data at the Salvadoran hydrographical and political (by department) levels. The checklist is systematically arranged at the ordinal and familial level and then alphabetically therein. The freshwater fish fauna of El Salvador includes 101 species divided into 64 genera, 29 families, and 14 orders. According to their supposed tolerance to salinity, 73% of these species are peripheral, 23% secondary, and only 4% are primary freshwater fishes. One species is endemic to the country, Amatitlania coatepeque. The low number of primary freshwater fishes and endemics is comparable to the Central American Pacific slope in particular, as well as northern Central America in general.

The contribution of environmental factors to fish assemblages in the Río Acahuapa, a small drainage in Central America

“…The basin of the Río Acahuapa has no influence of brackish water, its mouth connects with the Río Lempa 45 km away from the sea. The weather in the area is tropical and the dry season spans from November to April and the rainy season from May to October (McMahan et al, 2013). Most of the Río Acahuapa watershed area is used for livestock and agriculture, which includes crops such as: coffee, sugarcane, several kinds of fruits, vegetables, beans and corn.…”

“…Fish from marine derivation, that can be considered marine-stenohaline or marine-eurihaline (Espinosa-Pérez et al, 2011), were grouped in a single category of marine-estuarine species. This classification was made under a bibliographic revision available for each of the species (Castro-Aguirre et al, 1999;Bussing, 2002;Lyons, 2005;Miller et al, 2009;McMahan et al, 2013;Smith, Kwak, 2014b). Some individuals were kept and deposited in the scientific collection of the Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología of the Universidad de El Salvador (ICMARES-UES 462-472, 505-538; S1 -Available only as online supplementary file accessed with the online version of the article at http://www.scielo.br/ni).…”

“…However, in the last decades, some researchers are aiming to improve the understanding of the freshwater fish communities in the area. As a result, there are taxonomic inventories of freshwater fishes for almost all Central American countries (Greenfield, Thomerson, 1997;Kihn-Pineda et al, 2006;Matamoros et al, 2009;Angulo et al, 2013;McMahan et al, 2013). Nonetheless, it is notable a shortage of ecological studies in most of the Central America countries, but Costa Rica and Panama (e.g., Bussing, López, 1977;Angermeier, Karr, 1983;Wootton, Oemke, 1992;Lorion et al, 2011).…”

“…Nonetheless, it is notable a shortage of ecological studies in most of the Central America countries, but Costa Rica and Panama (e.g., Bussing, López, 1977;Angermeier, Karr, 1983;Wootton, Oemke, 1992;Lorion et al, 2011). Particularly in El Salvador a handful of published studies on freshwater fish have been generated (e.g., Hildebrand, 1925;Álvarez et al, 2013;McMahan et al, 2013), focusing on the distribution of species, while the ecological aspects of freshwater fish communities have been neglected.…”

Annotated checklist of the freshwater fishes of continental and insular Costa Rica: additions and nomenclatural revisions

“…Remarks: This species was thought to be endemic to the Nicoya, Tempisque, Bebedero, Barranca, Tárcoles, Pirrís and Térraba drainages, Costa Rica (Bussing 1998); however, McMahan et al (2013) report this in El Salvador.…”