Updated 30 Sept. 2024
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Ghost Knifefishes
Subfamily APTERONOTINAE Jordan 1923
Adontosternarchus Ellis 1912 ἀ, Greek privative, i.e., without, and odontos, Latinized and grammatically adjusted from the Greek nominative ὀδούς (odoús), tooth, referring to absence of teeth from both jaws; sternarchus, referring to then-placement in the subfamily Sternarchinae (=Apteronotinae)
Adontosternarchus balaenops (Cope 1878) balaena (L.), whale; ṓps (Gr. ὦψ), eye or face (i.e., appearance), referring to lower jaw projecting beyond upper jaw, “enclosing the latter somewhat as in a whalebone [or baleen] whale”
Adontosternarchus clarkae Mago-Leccia, Lundberg & Baskin 1985 in honor of Kate Rodriguez-Clark, who ran a research station in Venezuela with her husband, and who collected holotype
Adontosternarchus devenanzii Mago-Leccia, Lundberg & Baskin 1985 in honor of Francisco De Venanzi (1917–1987), physician, medical school professor, and first Rector of the Universidad Central de Venezuela (Caracas), who encouraged the first author to study fishes
Adontosternarchus duartei de Santana & Vari 2012 in honor of Cleber Duarte, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, who collected most of the specimens that served as the basis for its description
Adontosternarchus nebulosus Lundberg & Cox Fernandes 2007 Latin for cloudy, referring to bold color pattern of dark irregular blotches
Adontosternarchus sachsi (Peters 1877) in honor of physician and electric-fish researcher Carl Sachs (1853–1878), who collected holotype
Apteronotus Lacepède 1800 ἀ, Greek privative, i.e., without; pterus, from pterón (Gr. πτερόν) or ptéryx (πτέρυξ), fin; notus, from nṓtos (Gr. νῶτος), back, referring to absence of dorsal fin (a trait common to all knifefishes, however, apteronotids do possess a “dorsal organ,” a longitudinal strip of fleshy tissue firmly attached to posterodorsal midline)
Apteronotus acidops Triques 2011 acid-, from akídos (ἀκίδος), genitive singular of ákis (ἀκίς), any pointed object; ṓps (Gr. ὦψ), eye or face, referring to its very elongated and pointed head morphology
Apteronotus albertoi Peixoto, Dutra, Datovo, Menezes & de Santana 2021 in honor of Alberto Carvalho, manager of the Laboratório Multiusuário de Processamento de Imagens de Microtomografia Computadorizada de Alta Resolução do Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo (MZUSP), for his “kind support” in generating μCT scan images for MZUSP researchers, especially for the project ‘‘Diversity and Evolution of the Gymnotiformes”
Apteronotus albifrons (Linnaeus 1766) albi-, from albus (L.), white; frons (L.), face or brow, referring to whitish band extending from tip of snout to occiput
Apteronotus anu de Santana & Vari 2013 named for the Añu indigenous people who lived along the shores of Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela, in traditional houses termed Palafitos, which they built above the lake; such housing reminded early European explorers of Venice, Italy, and may have been the basis for the application of the name Venezuela to the region
Apteronotus apurensis Fernández-Yépez 1968 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Río Apure system, Orinoco basin, Venezuela, where type locality (Río Bucaral, Paso Mirabal) is situated
Apteronotus baniwa de Santana & Vari 2013 named for the indigenous Baniwa people of Venezuela, whose home territory encompasses the Río Orinoco basin, type locality
Apteronotus bonapartii (Castelnau 1855) in honor of French biologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte (1803–1857), 2nd Prince of Canino and Musignano, “who even if he was not a member of the imperial house, is still one of the princes of science” (translation)
Apteronotus brasiliensis (Reinhardt 1852) –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Brazil, where type locality (rio das Velhas) is situated
Apteronotus camposdapazi de Santana & Lehmann A. 2006 in honor of Brazilian biologist Ricardo Campos-da-Paz, Universidade de São Paulo, for contributions to the knowledge of gymnotiform fishes, and for discovering this species
Apteronotus caudimaculosus de Santana 2003 cauda (L.), tail; maculosus (L.), spotted, referring to irregular dark spots on first of two bands that circle caudal peduncle
Apteronotus cuchillejo (Schultz 1949) Spanish for a small knife, the common name for this small, knife-shaped fish in Venezuela
Apteronotus cuchillo Schultz 1949 Spanish for knife, a common name for gymnotiform fishes in Venezuela, referring to their knife-like shape
Apteronotus ellisi (Alonso de Arámburu 1957) in honor of zoologist Max Mapes Ellis (1887–1953), Indiana University, for his 1913 monograph on knifefishes
Apteronotus eschmeyeri de Santana, Maldonado-Ocampo, Severi & Mendes 2004 in honor of William N. Eschmeyer (b. 1939), California Academy of Sciences, who greatly contributed to ichthyology with his “Catalog of Fishes”
Apteronotus ferrarisi de Santana & Vari 2013 in honor of American ichthyologist Carl J. Ferraris, Jr. (b. 1950), for his many contributions to our knowledge of tropical freshwater fishes worldwide and his “invaluable” assistance to the authors, particularly the second author, over the years
Apteronotus galvisi de Santana, Maldonado-Ocampo & Crampton 2007 in honor of Germán Vergara, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Bogotá, for his “vast” contributions to our knowledge of the freshwater fishes of Colombia
Apteronotus jurubidae (Fowler 1944) of the Río Jurubidá, Nuquí, Pacific Slope, Colombia, type locality
Apteronotus leptorhynchus (Ellis 1912) narrow-snouted, from leptós (Gr. λεπτός), narrow or delicate, and rhýnchos (Gr. ῥύγχος), snout, referring to its “rather long” pointed snout
Apteronotus lindalvae de Santana & Cox Fernandes 201 2in honor of Lindalva Sales da Costa Serrão, who has been contributing to the organization of INPA’s (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia) fish collection for more than 20 years
Apteronotus macrolepis (Steindachner 1881) macro-, from makrós (Gr. μακρός), long or large; lepίs (Gr. λεπίς), scale, referring to large scales on upper sides of body
Apteronotus macrostomus (Fowler 1943) big-mouthed, from makrós (Gr. μακρός), long or large, and stóma (Gr. στόμα), mouth, which extends beyond eye and is half the length of the head
Apteronotus magdalenensis (Miles 1945) –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Río Magdalena, Honda, Tolima, Colombia, type locality
Apteronotus magoi de Santana, Castillo & Taphorn 2006 in honor of the late Francisco Mago-Leccia (1931–2004), Venezuelan ichthyologist, for his “enormous” contributions to our knowledge of gymnotiform fishes, and for having recognized this species as undescribed
Apteronotus mariae (Eigenmann & Fisher 1914) in honor of Hermano Apolinar Maria (1867–1949), missionary monk, ornithologist, and Director, Museum at the Instituto de La Salle, Bogota, who provided Eigenmann with “valuable collections” of fishes from the Rio Meta basin of Colombia
Apteronotus milesi de Santana & Maldonado-Ocampo 2005 in honor of Cecil (spelled Celis by the authors) W. Miles, Secretary of the Dorada Railway (and an ichthyologist), Mariqueta, Tolima Department, Colombia, who “greatly” contributed to the knowledge of fishes from the Magdalena-Cauca hydrographic region of Colombia
Apteronotus paranaensis (Schindler 1940) –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: rio Paraná basin, Brazil, type locality [species inquirenda, provisionally included here]
Apteronotus pemon de Santana & Vari 2013 named for the Pemon indigenous group, whose traditional lands included much of the Río Caroni basin, Venezuela, type locality
Apteronotus quilombola Peixoto, Datovo, Menezes & Santana 2021 named for the quilombolas, Afro-Brazilian residents of the quilombos, which are Brazilian hinterland settlements first established by escaped enslaved Africans; in the Rio Trombetas, over 145 quilombolas families live near the Cachoeira Porteira waterfalls (Pará, Brazil), one of two places where this knifefish is known to occur
Apteronotus rostratus (Meek & Hildebrand 1913) Latin for beaked, allusion not explained, presumably referring to its blunt and slightly compressed snout
Apteronotus spurrellii (Regan 1914) in honor of British zoologist Henry George Flaxman Spurrell (1882–1919), who collected holotype
Compsaraia Albert 2001 comps-, from kompsós (Gr. κομψός), neat or elegant; raia (L.), ray (as in stingray, but here meaning rays of a fin), referring to elegant appearance of long anal fin of C. compsus
Compsaraia iara Bernt & Albert 2017 named for Iara, a water nymph from Tupí-Brazilian folklore said to reside in the rivers of the Brazilian Amazon and often blamed for the disappearance of fishermen
Compsaraia compsus (Mago-Leccia 1994) from kompsós (Gr. κομψός), elegant or beautiful, referring to its elongate body
Compsaraia samueli Albert & Crampton 2009 in honor of the first author’s father, Samuel Albert, who accompanied his son on an electric-fish collecting trip to Peru, and purchased type specimens from a fish market near Iquitos when he recognized that they differed from all the other electric fishes they had been collecting by the prominent elongate jaws of mature males (James S. Albert, pers. comm.)
Megadontognathus Mago-Leccia 1994 mégas (Gr. μέγας), large or great; odontos, Latinized and grammatically adjusted from the Greek nominative ὀδούς (odoús), tooth; gnáthos (Gr. γνάθος), jaw or mandible, referring to 2–3 big, recurved teeth on posterior half of dentary bone
Megadontognathus cuyuniensis Mago-Leccia 1994 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Río Cuyuni at Paruruvaca rapids, Bolivar, Venezuela, type locality [originally spelled cuyuniense; emended to agree with masculine genus]
Megadontognathus kaitukaensis Campos-da-Paz 1999 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Cachoeiras (rapids) de Kaituká, rio Xingu drainage, Pará, Brazil, type locality
Melanosternarchus Bernt, Crampton, Orfinger & Albert 2018 mélanos (Gr. μέλανος), genitive of mélas (μέλας), black, referring to its dark pigmentation and occurrence in blackwater rivers; sternarchus, a common suffix in knifefish taxonomy, from Sternarchus Bloch & Schneider 1801 (=Apteronotus), stérnon (Gr. στέρνον), breast or chest (especially of men), and archós (Gr. ἀρχός), anus, referring to placement of anal opening near breast of Apteronotus albifrons (and all other gymnotiforms)
Melanosternarchus amaru Bernt, Crampton, Orfinger & Albert 2018 amaru, a serpent in Quechuan mythology, referring to its snake-like shape
Parapteronotus Albert 2001 pará (Gr. παρά), near, referring to phylogenetic position of this lineage as sister taxon to other members of Apteronotinae; Apteronotus, type genus of family
Parapteronotus hasemani (Ellis 1913) in honor of American zoologist John D. Haseman (1882–1969), field collector in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Department of Ichthyology from 1908-1911, who collected holotype
Pariosternarchus Albert & Crampton 2006 pario-, from pareiá (Gr. παρειά), cheek, referring to expanded ventrolateral surface of head; sternarchus, a common suffix in knifefish taxonomy, from Sternarchus Bloch & Schneider 1801 (=Apteronotus), stérnon (Gr. στέρνον), breast or chest (especially of men), and archós (Gr. ἀρχός), anus, referring to placement of anal opening near breast of Apteronotus albifrons (and all other gymnotiforms)
Pariosternarchus amazonensis Albert & Crampton 2006 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: main Amazon River channels of Brazil and Peru, where it occurs
Platyurosternarchus Mago-Leccia 1994 platýs (Gr. πλατύς), broad, and uro, from ourá (Gr. οὐρά), tail, referring to deep caudal peduncle of P. macrostomus; sternarchus, a common suffix in knifefish taxonomy, from Sternarchus Bloch & Schneider 1801 (=Apteronotus), stérnon (Gr. στέρνον), breast or chest (especially of men), and archós (Gr. ἀρχός), anus, referring to placement of anal opening near breast of Apteronotus albifrons (and all other gymnotiforms)
Platyurosternarchus crypticus de Santana & Vari 2009 Latin for hidden or secret, referring to its previously undetected, albeit very distinct, differences between it and P. macrostomus
Platyurosternarchus macrostomus (Günther 1870) big-mouthed, from makrós (Gr. μακρός), long or large, and stóma (Gr. στόμα), mouth, referring to wide mouth cleft, more than half the length of the snout
Porotergus Ellis 1912 póros (Gr. πόρος), hole or passage; tergus (L.), the back, referring to numerous mucous pores on mid-dorsal band or stripe of P. gymnotus and P. gimbeli
Porotergus duende de Santana & Crampton 2010 Portuguese word for elf or imp, referring to its “diminutive” size (up to 140 mm TL)
Porotergus gimbeli Ellis 1912 in honor of American philanthropist Jacob (Jake) Gimbel (1876–1943), whose generosity made possible the Gimbel Expedition to British Guiana, where holotype was collected
Porotergus gymnotus Ellis 1912 gymnós (Gr. γυμνός), bare or naked; notus, from nṓtos (Gr. νῶτος), back, referring to absence of scales along back to beyond origin of dorsal-fin filament
Sternarchella Eigenmann 1905 –ella (L.), a diminutive suffix, referring to previous placement of S. schotti in Sternarchus (=Apteronotus), distinguished by its “much shorter” snout and “very much smaller” mouth
Sternarchella calhamazon Lundberg, Coz Fernandes, Campos da Paz & Sullivan 2013 named for the Calhamazon Project, a 1992–1997 Brazilian-U.S. collaborative ichthyological inventory of the deep river channels of the Brazilian Amazon; derived from the Portuguese calha for channel plus Amazon (pronounced cal-yah-mazon)
Sternarchella curvioperculata Godoy 1968 curvus (L.), curved; operculata (L.), furnished with a lid (i.e., opercle), referring to concave dorsal margin of opercle [possibly a species of Apteronotus]
Sternarchella duccis (Lundberg, Cox Fernandes & Albert 1996) named for DUCCIS (pronounced dū’ssĭs), acronym of an ichthyological club, the Duke University Center for Creative Ichthyological Studies
Sternarchella orinoco Mago-Leccia 1995 named for the Río Orinoco basin of Venezuela, where it lives in the main channel of large rivers
Sternarchella orthos Mago-Leccia 1994 orthós (Gr. ὀρθός), straight, referring to straight dorsal profile of head and body
Sternarchella patriciae Evans, Crampton & Albert 2017 in honor of Patricia Evans, a civil-rights activist and community leader in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (and the first author’s mother, K. M. Evans, pers. comm.)
Sternarchella raptor (Lundberg, Cox Fernandes & Albert 1996) Latin for robber or plunderer, a commonly used term in zoology for a predacious animal, here referring to its well-toothed jaws and tail-eating habit
Sternarchella rex Evans, Crampton & Albert 2017 Latin for king, referring to its body size and robust appearance (the largest known species in the genus, reaching 412 mm LEA (from tip of snout to end of anal fin)
Sternarchella schotti (Steindachner 1868) patronym not identified, probably in honor of German-American cartographer, botanist and geologist Arthur Schott (1814–1875)
Sternarchella sima Starks 1913 Latin for blunt-nosed, referring to blunt, rounded snout overhanging a small mouth
Sternarchogiton Eigenmann 1905 geítōn (Gr. γείτων), neighbor, i.e., close to Sternarchus (=Apternotus), in which S. nattereri had been placed
Sternarchogiton labiatus de Santana & Crampton 2007 Latin for lipped, referring to “unusual” and diagnostic three-lobed structure on lower lip
Sternarchogiton nattereri (Steindachner 1868) in honor of Austrian naturalist Johann Natterer (1787–1843), who explored South America and collected specimens for 18 years, including holotype of this species
Sternarchogiton porcinum Eigenmann & Allen 1942 Latin for porcine or pig-like, referring to the “strong inclusion of the lower jaw within the upper” [correctly spelled porcinus to agree with masculine genus, but porcinum may be retained due to prevailing usage]
Sternarchogiton zuanoni de Santana & Vari 2010 in honor of Brazilian ichthyologist Jansen Alfredo Sampaio Zuanon, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (Manaus), who has contributed “enormously” to our knowledge of the ecology and taxonomy of fishes from the Amazon basin (he also helped collect holotype)
Sternarchorhynchus Castelnau 1855 a Sternarchus (=Apteronotus) with a curved rhýnchos (Gr. ῥύγχος), snout, referring to snout produced into a long tube, slightly arched downwards
Sternarchorhynchus axelrodi de Santana & Vari 2010 in honor of American pet-book publisher and aquarist Herbert R. Axelrod (1927–2017), whose “generous support of ichthyological research” assisted with the completion of the authors’ revision of the genus
Sternarchorhynchus britskii Campos-da-Paz 2000 in honor of Brazilian ichthyologist Heraldo A. Britski (b. 1934), Universidade de São Paulo, who first noted the presence of this species in the upper Rio Paraná system (Brazil), and who has contributed much to advance our knowledge of neotropical fishes both through his own and his students’ studies
Sternarchorhynchus caboclo de Santana & Nogueira 2006 Brazilian-Portuguese word for a person of mixed Brazilian Indian and European or African ancestry, named in honor of the caboclos of northern Brazil, whose field knowledge has contributed greatly to our understanding of neotropical fishes
Sternarchorhynchus chaoi de Santana & Vari 2010 in honor of ichthyologist Ning Labbish Chao, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, for “invaluable” assistance and financial support to the senior author during his studies of gymnotiform fishes in Manaus, Brazil
Sternarchorhynchus cramptoni de Santana & Vari 2010 in honor of British ichthyologist William Crampton (b. 1969), University of Central Florida, for many contributions to our knowledge of the biology and systematics of gymnotiform fishes
Sternarchorhynchus curumim de Santana & Crampton 2006 Brazilian-Portuguese derivate of the Tupí-Guarani word for child, curumi, or kurumí, referring to its small size (up to 211 mm TL)
Sternarchorhynchus curvirostris (Boulenger 1887) curvus (L.), curved; rostris, Neo-Latin scientific adjective of rostrum (L.), snout, referring to long, tubular snout, “bent downwards”
Sternarchorhynchus freemani de Santana & Vari 2010 in honor of zoologist Bryon J. Freeman (b. 1950), University of Georgia (USA), for “invaluable” assistance to the senior author at the Georgia Museum of Natural History
Sternarchorhynchus galibi de Santana & Vari 2010 named for Galibi, Suriname, of town that began as a major settlement of the indigenous Caribs, at the mouth of the Marowijne, the drainage system that includes type locality along border between Suriname and French Guiana
Sternarchorhynchus gnomus de Santana & Taphorn 2006 Latin for gnome (authors say dwarf), a diminutive fabled being, referring to its size (up to 152 mm TL), the smallest member of the genus
Sternarchorhynchus goeldii de Santana & Vari 2010 in honor of Swiss-Brazilian zoologist Émil (or Emílio) Goeldi (1859–1917), Director of the Museo Paraense, for many contributions to our knowledge of many groups of Amazonian animals, including fishes
Sternarchorhynchus hagedornae de Santana & Vari 2010 in honor of marine biologist and fish physiologist Mary Hagedorn, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C., USA), who collected type series and has made many contributions to our understanding of the diversity of gymnotiform fishes
Sternarchorhynchus higuchii de Santana & Vari 201 in honor of ichthyologist Horácio Higuchi, Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, for “invaluable” assistance to the senior author during his early studies of gymnotiform fishes
Sternarchorhynchus inpai de Santana & Vari 2010 of INPA, acronym of Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (Manaus, Brazil), a center for the study of the biodiversity of the Brazilian Amazon for over 50 years
Sternarchorhynchus jaimei de Santana & Vari 2010 in honor of Brazilian molecular biologist Jaime Ribeiro Carvalho, Jr., Centro do Jovem Aquarista, for “invaluable” assistance to the senior author during the early phases of his studies of gymnotiform fishes
Sternarchorhynchus kokraimoro de Santana & Vari 2010 named for the Kokraimoro, a group within the Kayabo tribe whose ancestral lands included type locality (rio Xingu, Pará, Brazil)
Sternarchorhynchus mareikeae de Santana & Vari 2010 in honor of German biologist Mareike Roeder, who has “greatly added to the senior author’s life”
Sternarchorhynchus marreroi de Santana & Vari 2010 in honor of aquatic biologist Críspulo Marrero (b. 1954), Universidad Nacional Experimental de los Llanos Occidentales, who has “greatly” contributed to our knowledge of gymnotiform biology in Venezuela
Sternarchorhynchus mendesi de Santana & Vari 2010 in honor of fisheries scientist and oceanographer George Nilson Mendes, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (Brazil), for his assistance to the first author during the early phases of his studies of gymnotiform fishes
Sternarchorhynchus mesensis Campos-da-Paz 2000 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Serra da Mesa, an area of the upper River Tocantins region (Goiás, Brazil), type locality
Sternarchorhynchus montanus de Santana & Vari 2010 Latin for pertaining to mountains, referring to type locality in the foothills of the Andean Cordilleras (Río Marañon, Amazonas, Peru)
Sternarchorhynchus mormyrus (Steindachner 1868) referring to Mormyrus (sensu lato), a genus of weakly electric, ecologically convergent African fishes (Osteoglossiformes: Mormyridae), many of which, like this species, possess a long, tubular snout, bent downwards
Sternarchorhynchus oxyrhynchus (Müller & Troschel 1849) sharp-snouted, from oxýs (Gr. ὀξύς), sharp, and rhýnchos (Gr. ῥύγχος), snout, referring to snout produced into a long tube, slightly arched downwards
Sternarchorhynchus retzeri de Santana & Vari 2010 in honor of Michael Retzer, Curator of Fishes, Illinois Natural History Survey, for “invaluable” assistance through the years to both authors in the course of this and other research projects
Sternarchorhynchus roseni Mago-Leccia 1994 in honor of American ichthyologist Donn Eric Rosen (1929–1986), American Museum of Natural History, for his “outstanding” contributions to the biology and systematics of fishes
Sternarchorhynchus schwassmanni de Santana & Vari 2010 in honor of American ichthyologist Horst O. Schwassmann (b. 1922), University of Florida, for contributions to the knowledge of electric knifefishes
Sternarchorhynchus severii de Santana & Nogueira 2006 in honor of Brazilian biologist William Severi, for his contribution to the knowledge of the fishes of northeastern Brazil
Sternarchorhynchus starksi de Santana & Vari 2010 in honor of American ichthyologist Edwin Chapin Starks (1867–1932), Stanford University (California, USA), who in 1911 collected a portion of the series that served as the basis for this description and who made a number of contributions to our knowledge of the anatomy of fishes
Sternarchorhynchus stewarti de Santana & Vari 2010 in honor of Donald J. Stewart (b. 1946), College of Environmental Science of Forestry, State University of New York, who collected the specimens that first brought this species to the authors’ attention, and who has made many contributions to our knowledge of the fishes of the western portions of the Amazon basin
Sternarchorhynchus taphorni de Santana & Vari 2010 in honor of American ichthyologist Donald C. Taphorn (b. 1951), Universidad Nacional Experimental de los Llanos Occidentales, who “generously” assisted the authors with this and other publications over the years, and who has made many contributions to our understanding of South American freshwater fishes
Sternarchorhynchus villasboasi de Santana & Vari 2010 in honor of Brazilian activist Orlando Villa Bôas (1914–2002), who was instrumental in the designation of the Xingu National Park, for his diverse endeavors to ameliorate the impact of development projects on the indigenous peoples of that region
Sternarchorhynchus yepezi de Santana & Vari 2010 in honor of Venezuelan ichthyologist Augustin Fernández-Yépez (1916–1977), whose research on Sternarchorhynchus demonstrated that the diversity within the genus was greater than had been recognized
Tembeassu Triques 1998 from the native Tupí words tembé, lip, and açú, large, with the “ç” changed to “ss,” referring to enlarged fleshy lateral lobe on chin
Tembeassu marauna Triques 1998 from the native Tupí maraúna, ghost, referring to its being “hidden” in its habitat
Tembeassu titanicus Peixoto, Campos-da-Paz, Menezes, de Santana, Triques & Datovo 2022 –icus (L.), belonging to: titán (Gr. τιτάν), one of the Titans (giant deities in Greek mythology), representing brute force and large size, referring to its larger size compared with T. marauna
Tenebrosternarchus Bernt, Fronk, Evans & Albert 2020 tenebrae (L.), darkness or gloom, referring to black pigmentation of T. preto; sternarchus, a common suffix in knifefish taxonomy, from Sternarchus Bloch & Schneider 1801 (=Apteronotus), stérnon (Gr. στέρνον), breast or chest (especially of men), and archós (Gr. ἀρχός), anus, referring to placement of anal opening near breast of Apteronotus albifrons (and all other gymnotiforms)
Tenebrosternarchus preto (de Santana & Crampton 2007) Portuguese for black, referring to its diagnostic dark pigmentation
Longsnout Knifefishes
Subfamily STERNARCHORHAMPHINAE Albert 2001
Orthosternarchus Ellis 1913 orthós (Gr. ὀρθός), straight, probably referring to its “long, straight” tubular snout; sternarchus, referring to then-placement in the subfamily Sternarchinae (=Apteronotinae)
Orthosternarchus tamandua (Boulenger 1898) named for Tamandua, genus of edentate anteaters of tropical America, from the Portuguese tamanduá, derived from the Tupí taa, ant, and mundeu, trap or catch, presumably referring to its long and nearly straight tubular snout, resembling that of an anteater
Sternarchorhamphus Eigenmann 1905 rhamphus, from rhámphos (Gr. ῥάμφος), beak or bill; sternarcho-, described as intermediate between Sternarchus (=Apteronotus) and Sternarchorhynchus, with the long snout of the latter and mouth size approaching that of the former
Sternarchorhamphus muelleri (Steindachner 1881) in honor of German biologist Johannes Müller (1801–1858), who, with Franz Hermann Troschel (1810–1882), described its presumed congener at the time, Sternarchorhynchus oxyrhynchus, in 1849