Updated 17 Oct. 2024
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Akawaio Maldonado-Ocampo, López-Fernández, Taphorn, Bernard, Crampton & Lovejoy 2014 named in honor of the Akawaio Amerindians who populate the region of the upper Mazaruni River, Guyana (where A. penak is endemic), for their valuable help while studying the fishes of their lands
Akawaio penak Maldonado-Ocampo, López-Fernández, Taphorn, Bernard, Crampton & Lovejoy 2014 Akawaio Amerindian word that is “apparently used unambiguously for this species”
Brachyhypopomus Mago-Leccia 1994 brachýs (Gr. βραχύς), short, i.e., similar and/or related to Hypopomus but distinguished by their short snouts
Subgenus Brachyhypopomus
Brachyhypopomus alberti Crampton, de Santana, Waddell & Lovejoy 2017 in honor of ichthyologist James S. Albert (b. 1964), University of Louisiana at Lafayette (Louisiana, USA), collector of part of the type series, for his “enormous” contributions to the systematic biology of gymnotiform fishes
Brachyhypopomus arrayae Crampton, de Santana, Waddell & Lovejoy 2017 in honor of Bolivian biologist Mariana Arraya, for her assistance in collecting the type series in Bolivia
Brachyhypopomus batesi Crampton, de Santana, Waddell & Lovejoy 2017 in honor of English naturalist Henry Walter Bates (1829–1892), who explored the Amazon with Alfred Russel Wallace in 1848 and collected many specimens (mostly insects), for his contributions to the natural history of the Tefé region of Brazil, type locality
Brachyhypopomus beebei (Schultz 1944) in honor of American naturalist and explorer William Beebe (1877–1962), New York Zoological Society, who collected holotype and “kindly” loaned the specimens to Schultz
Brachyhypopomus belindae Crampton, de Santana, Waddell & Lovejoy 2017 in honor of evolutionary biologist Belinda Siew-Woon Chang, University of Toronto (Canada), for her “inspiration to [the fourth author] during the preparation of this work”
Brachyhypopomus benjamini Crampton, de Santana, Waddell & Lovejoy 2017 in honor of Benjamin T. D. Crampton (b. 1972), British and Irish diplomat, amateur ornithologist, and brother of first author, who collected holotype
Brachyhypopomus bombilla Loureiro & Silva 2006 local name for metal straw used to drink mate, a popular herbal infusion in the Río de la Plata region of Uruguay, whose shape resembles the shape of this knifefish; in memory of friend and colleague Pablo Errandonea (1973–2000), who coined the name (see Gymnotus chimarrao and G. cuia [Gymnotidae] for other mate-related knifefish names)
Brachyhypopomus brevirostris (Steindachner 1868) brevis (L.), short; rostris, Neo-Latin scientific adjective of rostrum (L.), snout, referring to its “greatly blunted muzzle” (translation), less than ⅓ length of head
Brachyhypopomus bullocki Sullivan & Hopkins 2009 in honor of Theodore Holmes Bullock (1915–2005), a “pioneer” of the comparative neurobiology of both invertebrates and vertebrates; he is credited with the first physiological recordings from an electroreceptor and for championing electric fishes as a model system in neurobiology
Brachyhypopomus cunia Crampton, de Santana, Waddell & Lovejoy 2017 named for lago Cuniã, type locality, a floodplain lake of the lower rio Madeira inside the Reserva Extrativista do lago do Cuniã, Rondônia, Brazil
Brachyhypopomus degy Dutra, Peixoto, Ochoa, Ohara, de Santana, Menezes & Datovo 2021 acronym for Diversity and Evolution of Gymnotiformes, a project that supported the authors’ research and is funded by a cooperation agreement between the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (Brazil) and the Smithsonian Institution (USA)
Brachyhypopomus diazae (Fernández-Yépez 1972) in honor of Fernández-Yépez’ secretary, María Isabel (Betty) Diaz
Brachyhypopomus draco Giora, Malabarba & Crampton 2008 Latin for dragon, from drákōn (Gr. δράκων), referring to shape of distal portion of caudal filament in mature males, similar to that illustrated in these imaginary creatures
Brachyhypopomus flavipomus Crampton, de Santana, Waddell & Lovejoy 2017 flavus (L.), yellow; pomus, from pṓma (Gr. πῶμα), lid or cover, i.e., operculum, referring to conspicuous patches of yellow guanine on operculum of live individuals
Brachyhypopomus gauderio Giora & Malabarba 2009 synonym of gaúcho, a person who lives in the countryside (Pampas) of Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, referring to geographic distribution of this species
Brachyhypopomus hamiltoni Crampton, de Santana, Waddell & Lovejoy 2017 in honor of William D. Hamilton (1936–2000), British evolutionary biologist and doctoral advisor of the first author, for his contributions to Amazonian ecology
Brachyhypopomus hendersoni Crampton, de Santana, Waddell & Lovejoy 2017 in honor of Peter A. Henderson (b. 1954), British aquatic biologist and doctoral co-advisor of the first author, for his contributions to Amazonian aquatic ecology
Brachyhypopomus janeiroensis (Costa & Campos-da-Paz 1992) –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where type locality (Corrego Salto-d’agua, tributary of Rio São Joao) is situated
Brachyhypopomus jureiae Triques & Khamis 2003 of the Juréia Ecological Station, São Paulo, Brazil, type locality
Brachyhypopomus menezesi Crampton, de Santana, Waddell & Lovejoy 2017 in honor of Brazilian ichthyologist Naércio Aquino Menezes (b. 1937), Museu de Zoologia, Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil), for his important contributions to Neotropical fish systematics
Brachyhypopomus occidentalis (Regan 1914) Latin for western, presumably referring to type locality along Pacific slope of Colombia
Brachyhypopomus palenque Crampton, de Santana, Waddell & Lovejoy 2017 named for Río Palenque, a Pacific Ocean drainage of Ecuador, type locality
Brachyhypopomus pinnicaudatus (Hopkins, Comfort, Bastian & Bass 1990) pinni, from pinna, (L.), feather; caudatus (L.), tailed, referring to “feather-like” appearance of caudal-fin filament in males [sometimes dated to (Hopkins 1991) but name is available from an earlier non-taxonomic publication]
Brachyhypopomus provenzanoi Crampton, de Santana, Waddell & Lovejoy 2017 in honor of Francisco Provenzano R., Instituto de Zoología Tropical de la Universidad Central de Venezuela, for his contributions to Neotropical ichthyology
Brachyhypopomus regani Crampton, de Santana, Waddell & Lovejoy 2017 in honor of English ichthyologist Charles Tate Regan (1878–1943), Natural History Museum (London) for his contributions to Neotropical ichthyology
Brachyhypopomus sullivani Crampton, de Santana, Waddell & Lovejoy 2017 in honor of American ichthyologist John P. Sullivan (b. 1965), Cornell University, for his contributions to gymnotiform biology
Brachyhypopomus verdii Crampton, de Santana, Waddell & Lovejoy 2017 in honor of Peruvian conservation biologist Lorgio Verdi Olivares, for his support to the first and fourth authors
Brachyhypopomus (subgenus Odontohypopomus) Sullivan, Zuanon & Cox Fernandes 2013 odontos, Latinized and grammatically adjusted from the Greek nominative ὀδούς (odoús), tooth, referring to small teeth on premaxillae; Hypopomus, type genus of family
Brachyhypopomus bennetti Sullivan, Zuanon & Cox Fernandes 2013 in honor of Michael V. L. Bennett (b. 1931), Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University (Bronx, New York, USA), for his “pioneering” work on electric-fish neurophysiology; in 1961 and 1971, Bennett reported studying a knifefish with a monophasic EOD (electric organ discharge) likely to have been this species
Brachyhypopomus walteri Sullivan, Zuanon & Cox Fernandes 2013 in honor of ethologist Walter Heiligenberg (1938–1994), for his discoveries in electric-fish neurophysiology and behavior made at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, most notably the “jamming avoidance response” in Eigenmannia (Sternopygidae), often described as the best-understood vertebrate behavior
Hypopomus Gill 1864 etymology not explained and no description given, presumably hypó (Gr. ὑπό), under or beneath (i.e., ventral), and pomus, from pṓma (Gr. πῶμα), lid or cover, i.e., operculum, perhaps referring to anus situated under gill opening
Hypopomus artedi (Kaup 1856) patronym not identified but almost certainly in honor of Swedish naturalist Peter Artedi (1705–1735), widely known as the “father of ichthyology” [presumably a noun in apposition, without the patronymic “i”]
Microsternarchus Fernández-Yépez 1968 micro-, from mikrós (Gr. μικρός), small, presumably referring to size of M. bilineatus (up to 82.8 mm TL); sternarchus, a common suffix in knifefish taxonomy, from Sternarchus Bloch & Schneider 1801 (=Apteronotus, Apteronotidae), 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
Microsternarchus bilineatus Fernández-Yépez 1968 bi-, from bis (L.), twice; lineatus (L.), lined, referring to double dotted line (almost imperceptible) running along dorsal surface
Microsternarchus brevis Cox Fernandes, Nogueira, Williston & Alves-Gomes 2015 Latin for short, referring to overall size (up to 53.2 mm TL) and shorter caudal-fin filament compared with M. bilineatus
Microsternarchus longicaudatus Sousa, Wosiacki, Muriel-Cunha, Prudente, Sousa & Peixoto 2024 longus (L.), long; caudatus (L.), tailed, referring to its elongated caudal filament (35.1–36.8% of TL), unique in the genus
Microsternarchus schonmanni Cox Fernandes, Keeffe & Pinilla 2024 in honor of Joseph Allois Schönmann (1872–1914), great-grandfather of the first author, trained at the Federal Polytechnic of Zurich, Switzerland, and who contributed much to the Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi (Belém, Pará, Brazil), preparing fish specimens among other animals from the Amazon
Procerusternarchus Cox Fernandes, Nogueira & Alves-Gomes 2014 procerus (L.), high, long or tall, referring to its elongate, slender body; sternarchus, a common suffix in knifefish taxonomy, from Sternarchus Bloch & Schneider 1801 (=Apteronotus, Apteronotidae), 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
Procerusternarchus pixuna Cox Fernandes, Nogueira & Alves-Gomes 2014 Nheengatu (Amerindian language of the Tupí-Guaraní family) word meaning dark or black, presumably referring to “almost black” coloration on dorsal surface from snout to caudal filament on living specimens
Racenisia Mago-Leccia 1994 –ia (L. suffix), belonging to: entomologist Janis Racenis (1915–1980), founder, Institutio de Zoología Tropical, Universidad Central de Venezuela, where Mago-Leccia worked
Racenisia fimbriipinna Mago-Leccia 1994 fimbriae (L.), fringe; pinna (L.), feather or fin, referring to how anal-fin rays are “covered by a thick tissue that gives an undulated shape to the fin in recently preserved specimens”