Notes on some type specimens of the Natural History Museum of Pirassununga, São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

Professor Manuel Pereira de Godoy idealized the Natural History Museum of Pirassununga (MHNP, in Portuguese), State of São Paulo, Brazil, in 1938. In 1962, the MHNP was constructed in the backyard of his house. In 1977, the museum also received the type specimens of fishes from the defunct Estação Experimental de Biologia e Piscicultura de Pirassununga (EEBP). Here we provide notes (including photographs) of 11 type specimens (holotypes, paratypes, and syntypes) of the following 10 species belonging to four families and two orders: Leporinus amae, Astyanax (Astyanax) trierythropterus, Hyphessobrycon flammeus guabirubae, Plecostomus fluviatilis, Plecostomus luteus, Plecostomus topavae, Cetopsorhamdia iheringi, Chasmocranus brachynema, Nannorhamdia schubarti, Pimelodella insignis. Our study provides unprecedented photographic records of several type specimens deposited in MHNP. We expect this study will help in species identification and also assist future taxonomic studies of Neotropical freshwater fishes.

Redescription of ‘Chasmocranus’ brachynema (Heptapteridae: Heptapterini)

“…As pointed out by Deprá et al (2022Deprá et al ( , 2023, the classification of several Heptapteridae genera is in a chaotic state, of which the genus Chasmocranus is one of the uttermost instances. Since its original description, Chasmocranus encompassed two highly divergent species, viz.…”

“…brachynema); the shape of the mouth, in which the rictus reaches the vertical through posterior nostril's anterior rim (vs. between posterior nostril and eye); and anterior nostril reaching or almost reaching the snout rim (vs. far from reaching it). Thereza, Langeani (2019) also recorded specimens they identified as 'Imparfinis' borodini (a name that currently is a synonym of Heptapterus longicauda; see Deprá et al, 2023) from several drainages in the Upper Paraná ecoregion. We analyzed two of these lots, viz.…”