Updated 13 Nov. 2024
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Acanthicus Agassiz 1829 from akánthinos (Gr. ἀκάνθινος), thorny, referring to entire dorsal surface of head of A. hystrix armed with long erectile spines, or odontodes

Acanthicus adonis Isbrücker & Nijssen 1988 in Greek mythology, Adonis was a handsome young man loved by the goddess Venus, here alluding to the fish’s attractive (spotted) juvenile coloration

Acanthicus hystrix Spix & Agassiz 1829 hýstrix (Gr. ὕστριξ) and hystrix (L.), porcupine, referring to entire dorsal surface of head armed with a bundle of long erectile spines, or odontodes

Ancistomus Isbrücker & Seidel 2001 a combination of the names Ancistrus and Hypostomus, reflecting similarities to both genera (Isaäc J. H. Isbrücker, pers. comm.)

Ancistomus feldbergae (de Oliveira, Rapp Py-Daniel, Zuanon & Rocha 2012) in honor of Brazilian biologist Eliana Feldberg, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, for her many contributions to cytogenetics of Amazonian fishes

Ancistomus micrommatos (Cardoso & Lucinda 2003) micro-, from mikrós (Gr. μικρός), small; ómmatos (Gr. ὄμματος), genitive of ómma (ὄμμα), eye, referring to its small, dorsolaterally placed eyes

Ancistomus snethlageae (Steindachner 1911) in honor of German ornithologist Maria Emilie Snethlage (1868–1929), who collected holotype

Ancistomus spilomma (Cardoso & Lucinda 2003) spílos (Gr. σπίλος), mark or spot; ómma (ὄμμα), eye, referring to small dark spots in upper portion of eye

Ancistomus spinosissimus (Cardoso & Lucinda 2003) Latin for very thorny, referring to numerous hypertrophied odontodes scattered over entire dorsolateral surface of trunk and fins in mature males

Ancistrus Kner 1854 etymology not explained, presumably from ágkistron (Gr. ἄγκιστρον), fishhook or hook of a spindle, referring to the hooked interopercular odontodes of adult males (less developed or absent in females)

Ancistrus abilhoai Bifi, Pavanelli & Zawadzki 2009 in honor of Vinícius Abilhoa, curator of fishes, Museu de História Natural do Capão de Imbuia (Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil), who collected some of the type series, and who has been of great assistance to the authors in this and other studies

Ancistrus agostinhoi Bifi, Pavanelli & Zawadzki 2009 in honor of Ângelo Antônio Agostinho, for his “myriad” contributions to our knowledge of the ecology of Neotropical fishes, and his participation in the establishment of the Núcleo de Pesquisas em Limnologia, Ictiologia e Aquicultura (Paraná, Brazil), “one of the most important centers of research in ecology of fishes of the Latin America”

Ancistrus aguaboensis Fisch-Muller, Mazzoni & Weber 2001 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: río Água Boa, upper río Tocantins basin, Brazil, type locality

Ancistrus alga (Cope 1872) Latin for seaweed, etymology not explained, possibly referring to algae, a food item in its largely herbivorous diet

Ancistrus amaris de Souza, Taphorn & Armbruster 2019 a– (Gr. ἀ), negative prefix, e.g., not; maris (L.), virile, referring to shorter tentacles on nuptial males compared with congeners in the Orinoco Andes and northwestern Guiana Shield region

Ancistrus brevifilis Eigenmann 1920 brevis (L.), short; filum (L.), thread, referring to short bifid or multifid tentacles on snout

Ancistrus brevipinnis (Regan 1904) brevis (L.), short; pinnis, Neo-Latin adjective of pinna (L.), fin, allusion not explained nor evident, perhaps referring to shorter first dorsal-fin ray compared with most congeners then placed in Xenocara (=Ancistrus)

Ancistrus bufonius (Valenciennes 1840) Latin for toad-like, presumably referring to its appearance

Ancistrus caucanus Fowler 1943 –anus (L.), belonging to: Río Cauca basin, Colombia, type locality (a misnomer; it actually occurs in the Magdalena River drainage; see A. vericaucanus)

Ancistrus centrolepis Regan 1913 centro-, from kéntron (Gr. κέντρον), any sharp point; lepίs (Gr. λεπίς), scale, referring to middle 2–3 series of lateral scutes with “spinules enlarged, ending in quite strong spines at the posterior edge of each scute”

Ancistrus chagresi Eigenmann & Eigenmann 1889 of the Río Chagres, Panama Canal Zone, Panama, type locality

Ancistrus cirrhosus (Valenciennes 1836) Latin for curled, referring to fleshy tentacles on head of adult males and snout of females

Ancistrus claro Knaack 1999 named for the rio Claro, Mato Grosso, Brazil, type locality

Ancistrus clementinae Rendahl 1937 of the Río Clementina system, northwest of Babahoyo, Ecuador, type locality

Ancistrus cryptophthalmus Reis 1987 crypto-, from kryptόs (Gr. κρυπτός), hidden; ophthalmós (Gr. ὀφθαλμός), eye, referring to its hidden, nonfunctional eyes, covered by dermal ossifications and skin

Ancistrus cuiabae Knaack 1999 of the rio Cuiabá basin, Mato Grosso State, Brazil, where it is endemic

Ancistrus damasceni (Steindachner 1907) patronym not identified, probably in honor of Col. José Damasceno Nogueira, who hosted Steindachner at his home in Filomeno, Brazil, in June 1903, near type locality

Ancistrus dolichopterus Kner 1854 long-finned, from dolichós (Gr. δολιχός), long, and pterus, from pterón (Gr. πτερόν) or ptéryx (πτέρυξ), fin, referring to dorsal fin as high as it is long, the length of its base equal to its distance from the caudal

Ancistrus dubius Eigenmann & Eigenmann 1889 Latin for doubtful or uncertain, proposed as a subspecies of A. cirrhosus differing only in coloration

Ancistrus erinaceus (Valenciennes 1840) Latin for hedgehog, presumably referring to its hooked interopercular odontodes

Ancistrus eustictus (Fowler 1945) well-spotted, from eū́– (Gr. εὖ), well or very, and stiktós (Gr. στικτός), marked or spotted, probably referring to 5–6 large black spots on dorsal fin

Ancistrus falconensis Taphorn, Armbruster & Rodríguez-Olarte 2010 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Falcón, Venezuela, type locality

Ancistrus formoso Sabino & Trajano 1997 named for its distribution in the Formoso phreatic system, rio Formoso basin, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

Ancistrus fulvus (Holly 1929) Latin for tawny or reddish-brown, referring to its uniform dark-brown coloration

Ancistrus galani Pérez & Viloria 1994 in honor of Carlos Alberto Galán (b. 1949), Venezuelan speleologist and biologist, who collected holotype

Ancistrus greeni (Isbrücker 2001) in honor of artist J. Green, who provided the “very precise and very beautiful” (translation) illustrations for Regan’s 1904 monograph of the family (replacement name for Chaetostoma maculatus Regan 1904, preoccupied by C. cirrhosus var. maculata Steindachner 1882)

Ancistrus gymnorhynchus Kner 1854 bare-snouted, from gymnós (Gr. γυμνός), bare or naked, and rhýnchos (Gr. ῥύγχος), snout, referring to reduced absence of tentacles (described from a female, which lacks or has fewer tentacles)

Ancistrus hoplogenys (Günther 1864) hóplon (Gr. ὅπλον), shield or armor; génys (Gr. γένυς), jaw (usually the cheek or lower jaw in ichthyology), referring to 8–9 non-flexible, curved interopercular spines

Ancistrus jataiensis Fisch-Muller, Cardoso, da Silva & Bertaco 2005 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: córrego Jataí, tributary of rio Vermelho, rio Tocantins basin, Goías, Brazil, type locality

Ancistrus jelskii (Steindachner 1876) in honor of Belarusian-Polish ornithologist Konstanty Jelski (1837–1896), who collected holotype

Ancistrus karajas de Oliveira, Rapp Py-Daniel, Zawadzki & Zuanon 2016 named for the indigenous tribe Karajás (or Carajás), who inhabit the lower rio Tocantins basin (Pará, Brazil), type locality

Ancistrus kellerae de Souza, Taphorn & Armbruster 2019 in honor of Constance Templeton Keller, for her “leadership as Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Field Museum [Chicago, USA], where her unparalleled support of research and conservation work has led to the protection of more than 8 million hectares of South America forests and rivers”; in addition, lead author is “personally inspired and honored to share a love of fly-fishing, the outdoors and conservation” with her

Ancistrus krenakarore de Oliveira, Rapp Py-Daniel, Zawadzki & Zuanon 2016 from kran iakarare, meaning “giant indians,” honoring the indigenous tribe Kren-Akarore who originally inhabited the rio Tapajós basin (Pará, Brazil), where this catfish occurs; to survive to the presence of “white men,” the entire Kren-Akarore population was forced to transfer to Parque Nacional do Xingu in the late 1960s, where they now call themselves “Panará,” meaning “we people”

Ancistrus latifrons (Günther 1869) latus (L.), wide or broad; frons (L.), forehead, referring to broad interorbital space

Ancistrus leoni de Souza, Taphorn & Armbruster 2019 in honor of “fallen colleague” Oscar León Mata (1964–2018), killifish collector and aquarist, environmental engineer, and fish curator (Museo de Ciencias Naturales in Guanare), who “dedicated much of his too-short life” to Venezuelan ichthyology (he died from bone cancer); he collected type series of this species and was “invaluable during many of the expeditions to Venezuela, which would not have succeeded without him”

Ancistrus leucostictus (Günther 1864) white-spotted, from leukós (Gr. λευκός), white, and stiktós (Gr. στικτός), marked or spotted, referring to “pure white dots” scattered over entire body and over all the fins

Ancistrus lithurgicus Eigenmann 1912 –icus (L.), adjectival suffix: lithurgus (L.), a stone worker, etymology not explained, perhaps referring to its type locality, a waterfall, where it may use its sucker mouth to cling to rocks in swift water

Ancistrus luzia Neuhaus, Britto, Birindelli & Sousa 2022 named for “Luzia” (Lapa Vermelha IV Hominid 1), a female Homo sapiens skeleton and one of the oldest human remains found in the Americas (11,000–11,500 years before present); the skeleton is deposited at Museu Nacional Biological Anthropology collection, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, and was recovered again after the fire that hit the institution on September 2, 2018, by Museu Nacional Rescue team, becoming a symbol of institutional hope and resilience [see also Microcambeva bendego, Trichomycteridae]

Ancistrus macrophthalmus (Pellegrin 1912) big-eyed, from makrós (Gr. μακρός), long or large, and ophthalmós (Gr. ὀφθαλμός), eye, its diameter 5 times in length of head, compared with 6–7 times on the similar A. occidentalis (=malacops)

Ancistrus maculatus (Steindachner 1881) Latin for spotted, proposed as a spotted subspecies or variety of A. cirrhosus

Ancistrus malacops (Cope 1872) malaco-, from malakós (Gr. μαλακός), ṓps (Gr. ὦψ), eye or face (i.e., appearance), allusion not explained, perhaps referring to lores (region between eyes and nostrils) “naked to near the nares”

Ancistrus maldonadoi Bifi & Ortega 2020 in memory of Javier Maldonado-Ocampo (1977–2019), Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia for his “great” contribution to neotropical ichthyology (he was killed when crossing a river in a small boat that overturned and was swept downstream)

Ancistrus marcapatae (Regan 1904) of the Marcapata Valley, eastern Peru, type locality

Ancistrus martini Schultz 1944 in honor of geologist Bethea Martin, Lago Petroleum Corporation, who aided Schultz in the collection of fishes in Venezuela

Ancistrus mattogrossensis Miranda Ribeiro 1912 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Mato Grosso, Brazil, presumed type locality [originally spelled mattogrossenssis, presumed to be a typo; species inquirenda, provisionally included here]

Ancistrus maximus de Oliveira, Zuanon, Zawadzki & Rapp Py-Daniel 2015 Latin for large or great, referring to its “off-the-chart” size (200 mm SL), reached in the genus only by A. chagresi and A. centrolepis

Ancistrus megacanthus Widholzer, Borsoi, Reis & Lehmann A. 2024 mégas (Gr. μέγας), large or great; acanthus (L.), from ákantha (Gr. ἄκανθα), thorn or spine, referring to its large pectoral-fin spines

Ancistrus megalostomus Pearson 1924 big-mouthed, from mégas (Gr. μέγας), large or great, and stóma (Gr. στόμα), mouth, characterized by its “very wide mandibular ramus”

Ancistrus minutus Fisch-Muller, Mazzoni & Weber 2001 Latin for small; one female with mature gonads was just 37.2 mm SL

Ancistrus miracollis Bifi, Oliveira & Rapp Py-Daniel 2019 mirus (L.), wonderful or surprising; collis (L.), hill or mountain, referring to beauty of its unique pattern color (for the genus) and its sampling site in the highlands of the Parque Estadual do Sucunduri, more specifically in the Sucunduri Dome (Amazonas State, Brazil), up to 350 m elevation, very peculiar for this area

Ancistrus montanus (Regan 1904) Latin for pertaining to mountains, referring to type locality in the Andes of Bolivia, elevation 457 m

Ancistrus mullerae Bifi, Pavanelli & Zawadzki 2009 in honor of Swiss ichthyologist Sonia Fisch-Muller, Muséum d’histoire naturelle de la Ville de Genève, Switzerland, for her contributions to our understanding of Ancistrus species

Ancistrus multispinis (Regan 1912) multi– (L.), many; spinis, from spinus (L.), thorn, referring to 20–25 spines on interoperculum

Ancistrus nudiceps (Müller & Troschel 1849) nudus (L.), naked or bare; –ceps, Neo-Latin, headed, referring to naked area on head, at least ⅓ distance from tip of snout to posterior margin of eye

Ancistrus occloi Eigenmann 1928 of Mama Occlo, mother and fertility goddess in Inca mythology, sister and wife of Manco Cápac, first Sapa Inca of the Kingdom of Cusco, presumably alluding to its occurrence in the Andes of Peru

Ancistrus parecis Fisch-Muller, Cardoso, da Silva & Bertaco 2005 named for the Chapada dos Parecis, a plateau where type locality (upper rio Tapajós basin, Mato Grosso, Brazil) is situated

Ancistrus patronus de Souza, Taphorn & Armbruster 2019 Latin for protector or defender, referring to how Ancistrus males guard their nests and protect their young; with their cheek odontodes everted, males can block off nests and potentially injure predators

Ancistrus pirareta Muller 1989 named for Salto Pirareta, Cordillera, Paraguay, type locality

Ancistrus piriformis Muller 1989 pirum (L.), pear; formis, Neo-Latin scientific adjective of forma (L.), shape or form, referring to its characteristic pear-like shape

Ancistrus ranunculus Muller, Rapp Py-Daniel & Zuanon 1994 diminutive of rana (L.), frog, alluding to name “Tadpole Ancistrus” sometimes given in the aquarium trade, referring to its appearance

Ancistrus reisi Fisch-Muller, Cardoso, da Silva & Bertaco 2005 in honor of Brazilian ichthyologist Roberto E. Reis, Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, for his “active” contribution to the knowledge of neotropical fishes

Ancistrus saudades de Souza, Taphorn & Armbruster 2019 Portuguese word used to express a deep longing or profound melancholy attached to a person, place or experience; it has a “deeper tone and meaning than a direct English translation and reflects the first author’s connection to her Brazilian heritage and her nostalgia for field work in remote wilderness areas”

Ancistrus sericeus (Cope 1872) Latin for silken or silky, allusion not explained nor evident

Ancistrus shuar Provenzano R. & Barriga-Salazar 2018 named for the “ancient and brave” Shuar indigenous group who live in the Morona-Santiago province of Ecuador, where this catfish occurs

Ancistrus spinosus Meek & Hildebrand 1916 Latin for thorny, allusion not explained, presumably referring to 8–12 interopercular odontodes (longer on males) and /or pectoral-fin spine “a little longer than the head”

Ancistrus stigmaticus Eigenmann & Eigenmann 1889 Latin for branded or marked, presumably referring to dark-brown body “thickly covered with light spots” and/or dark-brown fins “irregularly spotted with light”

Ancistrus tamboensis Fowler 1945 –ensis, suffix denoting place: Tambo River basin in upper Ucayali drainage, Peru, where it is endemic

Ancistrus taunayi Miranda Ribeiro 1918 in honor of Brazilian historian, professor and novelist Alfonso d’Escragnolle Taunay (1876–1958), director, Museu Paulista

Ancistrus temminckii (Valenciennes 1840) in honor of Coenraad Jacob Temminck (1778–1858), director of the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (Leiden, Netherlands), who provided holotype

Ancistrus tolima Taphorn, Armbruster, Villa-Navarro & Ray 2013 named for princess Yulima of the Pijao tribe, who was burned at the stake and martyred by the Spanish conquistadors, for whom the Department of Tolima, Colombia (where type locality is situated) was named

Ancistrus tombador Fisch-Muller, Cardoso, da Silva & Bertaco 2005 named for Serra do Tombador, Mato Grosso, Brazil, type locality

Ancistrus trinitatis (Günther 1864) –is, Latin genitive singular of: Trinidad, West Indies, where it is endemic

Ancistrus triradiatus Eigenmann 1918 tri– (L.), three; radiatus (L.), rayed, allusion not explained, perhaps referring to three soft anal-fin rays

Ancistrus variolus (Cope 1872) unnecessary masculinization of variola (L.), pustule or pox (i.e., spot), presumably referring to numerous large round spots on body

Ancistrus verecundus Fisch-Muller, Cardoso, da Silva & Bertaco 2005 Latin for shy or modest, referring to absence or reduced development of tentacles on snout

Ancistrus vericaucanus Taphorn, Armbruster, Villa-Navarro & Ray 2013 veri-, from verus (L.), true or actual; caucanus, referring to A. caucanus, which was originally thought to be from the Río Cauca of Colombia, but it actually occurs in the Magdalena River drainage, making this the true Ancistrus species from the Río Cauca

Ancistrus yanesha Neuhaus, Meza-Vargas, Herrera & Lujan 2023 named for the Yanesha or Amuesha indigenous community that occupies territories in Peru including the type locality of this catfish; Yanesha means “we the people” and the community is known for their strength, resilience, and resistance in the face of various challenges throughout Peru’s history

Ancistrus yutajae Souza, Taphorn & Armbruster 2019 of the Río Yutajé Venezuela, type locality, and in tribute to a local legend commemorating Yu and Taje, young lovers whose tribes were at war; in order to escape capture, they jumped from a cliff and were turned into twin waterfalls (which today intermingle to form the Yutajé Falls and the Yutajé River) by the god of waters, but will return to human form when their tribes unite to form a single people and peacefully inhabit the Guiana Shield lands

Andeancistrus Lujan, Meza-Vargas & Barriga-Salazar 2015 Andean, referring to the mountains from which this genus originates; ancistrus, a root name for many hypostomine genera that have clusters of enlarged evertible cheek odontodes, presumably from ágkistron (Gr. ἄγκιστρον), fishhook or hook of a spindle

Andeancistrus eschwartzae Lujan, Meza-Vargas & Barriga-Salazar 2015 in honor of New Orleans-based artist and benefactor Eugenia Schwartz (1951–2015), whose generous support through the Coypu Foundation made the authors’ research possible

Andeancistrus platycephalus (Boulenger 1898) flat-headed, from platýs (Gr. πλατύς), flat, and kephalḗ (Gr. κεφαλή), head, referring to its “excessively depressed” head (translation)

Aphanotorulus Isbrücker & Nijssen 1983 aphanḗs (Gr. ἀφανής), overlooked; torulus (L.), a small expansion, referring to numerous small papillae in buccal cavity of A. frankei (=unicolor)

Aphanotorulus ammophilus Armbruster & Page 1996 sand-loving, from ámmos or hámmos (Gr. ᾰ̓́μμος or ἅμμος), sand, and phílos (Gr. φίλος), friend or fond of, referring to its preference for sandy habitats

Aphanotorulus emarginatus (Valenciennes 1840) Latin for deprived of its edge (i.e., having a notched tip), referring to its emarginate (rather than produced) posterior end of occipital shield

Aphanotorulus gomesi (Fowler 1942) in honor of Alcides Lourenço Gomes (1916–1991), Estacão Experimental de Caça e Pesca (São Paulo, Brazil), who informed Fowler that the previous name for this fish, Plecostomus iheringi Fowler 1941, is preoccupied by P. (=Hypostomus) iheringii Regan 1908

Aphanotorulus horridus (Kner 1854) Latin for bristly or rough, referring to slightly keeled lateral scutes on body, each keel terminating in several small hooks

Aphanotorulus phrixosoma (Fowler 1940) phríx (Gr. φρίξ), bristling; sṓma (Gr. σῶμα), body, referring to long, curved, bristle-like spines on body [species inquirenda, provisionally included here, possibly an A. horridus x A. unicolor hybrid]

Aphanotorulus rubrocauda Oliveira, Rapp Py-Daniel & Zawadzki 2017 rubro-, from ruber (L.), red; cauda (L.), tail, referring to color of lower lobe of caudal fin

Aphanotorulus unicolor (Steindachner 1908) uni-, from unus (L.), one, referring to its uniform chocolate coloration (perhaps described from a preserved or color-faded specimen since catfish is spotted in life)

Araichthys Zawadski, Bifi & Mariotto 2016 ara, Tupí-Guaraní word for parrot (in English) and papagaio (in Portuguese), referring to the rio Papagaio basin (Mato Grosso, Brazil), where A. loro occurs; ichthýs (Gr. ἰχθύς), fish

Araichthys loro Zawadski, Bifi & Mariotto 2016 Brazilian common name usually given to pet parrots, referring to the rio Papagaio (“Parrot”), Mato Grosso, Brazil, type locality

Avalithoxus Lujan, Armbruster & Lovejoy 2018 ava (L.), grandmother, referring to both the apparently basal position of this lineage and matronym of type species, which honors Jeanne Lujan, mother of first author (who, at age 71, identifies herself mostly as a grandmother to Lujan’s two nieces and one nephew [pers. comm.]); Lithoxus, genus in which species had originally been placed

Avalithoxus jantjae (Lujan 2008) in honor of Lujan’s mother Jeanne, nicknamed Jantje (pronounced yäntchi) prior to her emigration from the Netherlands, “in deep appreciation for her hard work and material and emotional encouragement that promoted [Lujan’s] professional development and made this research possible”

Baryancistrus Rapp Py-Daniel 1989 barys (Gr. βαρὺς), heavy, referring to “broad, robust” body of B. niveatus (L. Rapp Py-Daniel, pers. comm.); Ancistrus, type genus of former subfamily Ancistrinae and formerly placed in Parancistrus

Baryancistrus beggini Lujan, Arce & Armbruster 2009 in honor of Chris Beggin, owner of The Aquatic Critter, a fish and reptile retailer in Nashville, Tennessee (USA), for his financial support of the authors’ research, ethical ornamental-fish business practices, and influence on the professional development of the first author

Baryancistrus chrysolomus Rapp Py-Daniel, Zuanon & Ribeiro de Oliveira 2011 chrysós (Gr. χρυσός), gold (authors say orange or yellow); lomus, latinized from lṓma (Gr. λῶμα), hem, fringe or border, referring to whitish orange band at border of dorsal and caudal fins in juveniles (narrower in adults)

Baryancistrus demantoides Werneke, Sabaj Pérez, Lujan & Armbruster 2005 –oides, Neo-Latin from eī́dos (εἶδος), form or shape: demantoid, a type of garnet that ranges in color from yellowish green to brownish green, referring to this fish’s color

Baryancistrus hadrostomus de Oliveira, Rapp Py-Daniel & Oyakawa 2019 large-mouthed, from hadrós (Gr. ἁδρός), well-developed or large, and stóma (Gr. στόμα), mouth, referring to its “extremely large” oral disc

Baryancistrus longipinnis (Kindle 1895) longus (L.), long; pinnis, Neo-Latin adjective of pinna (L.), fin, i.e., finned, presumably referring to its long dorsal fin, the base six times the distance between it and the adipose fin

Baryancistrus micropunctatus de Oliveira, Rapp Py-Daniel & Oyakawa 2019 micro-, from mikrós (Gr. μικρός), small; punctatus (L.), spotted, referring to small dots over entire body

Baryancistrus niveatus (Castelnau 1855) scientific Neo-Latin from niveus (L.), snowy, referring to small white spots on body

Baryancistrus xanthellus Rapp Py-Daniel, Zuanon & Ribeiro de Oliveira 2011 latinization of xanthós (Gr. ξανθός), yellow, referring to numerous bright-yellow spots over head, body, dorsal, adipose and caudal fins, and on dorsal surface of pectoral and pelvic fins (becoming proportionally smaller and somewhat paler in adults), and wide yellow band on distal third of caudal and dorsal fins of young specimens

Chaetostoma Tschudi 1846 chaeto-, from chaítē (Gr. χαίτη), long hair or mane but often meaning bristle in biology; stóma (Gr. στόμα), mouth, referring to bristles on cheeks of males

Chaetostoma aburrense (Posada 1909) –ense, Latin suffix denoting place: Valle de Aburrá, Cauca River basin, Colombia, where type locality (Medellín) is situated (although no types are known)

Chaetostoma anale (Fowler 1943) Latin for anal, referring to its enlarged anal fin, equal in length with the pectoral

Chaetostoma anomalum Regan 1903 Latin for anomalous (i.e., deviating from the general rule), “extremely remarkable in that the adipose fin is usually rudimentary or absent”

Chaetostoma bifurcum Lujan, Meza-Vargas, Astudillo, Barriga-Salazar & López-Fernández 2015 bi-, from bis (L.), twice; furcum (L.), pronged, referring to two evertible cheek odontodes, characteristic of this species

Chaetostoma branickii Steindachner 1881 patronym not identified, probably in honor of Hieronim Florian Radziwill Konstanty, Count Branicki (1823–1884), Polish nobleman who employed ornithologist Jan Stolzmann (also spelled Sztolcman, 1854-1928), who collected holotype

Chaetostoma brevilabiatum Dahl 1942 brevis (L.), short; labiatum (L.), lipped, referring to its “rather short” snout compared with C. fischeri, C. palmeri and C. thomsoni

Chaetostoma carrioni (Norman 1935) in honor of Ecuadorian paleontologist and naturalist Clodoveo Carrión (1883–1957), who collected holotype and presented it to the British Museum (Natural History)

Chaetostoma changae Salcedo 2006 in honor of the late Fonchii Chang (1963–1999), Peruvian ichthyologist of Chinese and Japanese ancestry, Museo de Historia Natural (Lima, Peru), for her “outstanding” contributions to the study of Peruvian fishes and her efforts mentoring Peruvian students (she died, along with her motorista, in a boat accident near Lake Rimachi, Peru; she was wearing rubber boots, which filled with water and anchored her to the bottom, where she was shocked by an electric eel, knocked unconscious and drowned)

Chaetostoma chimu Urbano-Bonilla & Ballen 2021 named for chimú or chimó, a soft extract of tobacco made by the aboriginals long before the Spanish invasion, and now used by the llaneros in the Llanos region of Colombia (where this catfish occurs) and Venezuela to alleviate tiredness, thirst, hunger, and cold during long working hours, to treat injuries, insect and snake bites, and, according to “shamanic” beliefs, to protect against evil spirits

Chaetostoma daidalmatos Salcedo 2006 derived from daídalon (Gr. δαίδαλον), a work of art, and/or daídalos (δαίδαλος), dappled or sheeny, i.e., a dappled or spotted work of art, referring to large dark spots evenly distributed all over its body

Chaetostoma dermorhynchum Boulenger 1887 skin-nosed, from dérma (Gr. δέρμα), skin, and rhýnchos (Gr. ῥύγχος), snout, referring to “entire margin of the snout naked, soft, swollen, without tentacles”

Chaetostoma dorsale Eigenmann 1922 Latin for “of the back,” allusion not explained nor evident; proposed in a footnote as a geographical variant of C. anomalus, which is described as having a dorsal spine equal or shorter than snout length, “base of dorsal equal to its distance from the caudal[,] the last ray reaching to the adipose,” back (dorsum) with dark cross-shades, and dorsal rays with small white dots

Chaetostoma dupouii Fernández-Yépez 1945 in honor of Walter Dupouy (1906–1978), Venezuelan anthropologist-biologist and director, National Museum of Natural Sciences (Caracas), who encouraged and supported Fernández-Yépez’ study of catfishes

Chaetostoma fischeri Steindachner 1879 in honor of Steindachner’s “dear friend” (translation) W. Fischer (no other information available) who provided a collection of river fishes from Panama, including holotype of this species

Chaetostoma floridablancaense Ardila Rodríguez 2013 –ense, suffix denoting place: Municipio de Floridablanca, Departamento de Santander, Colombia, type locality (also named in tribute to the author’s homeland, which he loves) [originally spelled floridablancaensis; emended to agree with neuter gender of genus]

Chaetostoma formosae Ballen 2011 Latin for beautiful, referring to the author’s sister, Laura María Ballen, for her “unconditional love and support”

Chaetostoma guairense Steindachner 1881 –ense, Latin suffix denoting place: Río Guaire near Caracas, Venezuela, type locality

Chaetostoma jegui Rapp Py-Daniel 1991 in honor of ichthyologist Michael Jégu, ORSTOM (Office de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique d’Outre-Mer), who collected holotype

Chaetostoma joropo Ballen, Urbano-Bonilla & Maldonado-Ocampo 2016 named for joropo, a collection of musical styles originating in the Llanos region of the Orinoco River Basin, Colombia, where this catfish occurs, honoring the importance and beauty of the region through “one of its most iconic cultural expressions, which does not account for political boundaries and promotes brotherhood among the people of Colombia and Venezuela”

Chaetostoma lepturum Regan 1912 thin-tailed, from leptós (Gr. λεπτός), fine or thin, and urus, from ourá (Gr. οὐρά), tail, referring to its slenderer tail compared with the similarly colored C. marginatum

Chaetostoma leucomelas Eigenmann 1918 leuco-, from leukós (Gr. λευκός), white; mélas (Gr. μέλας), black, referring to light and dark bars on all fins except anal, the contrast strongest on the dorsal and caudal fins

Chaetostoma lexa (Salcedo 2013) named for Alexandra (“Lexa”) Keane, a sustainability activist and political science student at the College of Charleston (South Carolina, USA), where Salcedo taught at the time (committed students such as Keane can make a difference and help save species like C. lexa from extinction; Norma J. Salcedo, pers. comm.) [a noun in apposition without the matronymic “ae”]

Chaetostoma lineopunctatum Eigenmann & Allen 1942 lineo– (L.), line; punctatum (L.), spotted, allusion not explained, perhaps referring to conspicuous black spots between dorsal-fin rays, which can be said to form a line-like series, and/or to “each membrane of the caudal, anal, pectoral, and ventral fins with a dark longitudinal line” and “many obscure black spots” on head and sides (on older specimens only)

Chaetostoma loborhynchos Tschudi 1846 lobós (Gr. λοβός), rounded projection; rhýnchos (Gr. ῥύγχος), snout, referring to its semicircular snout

Chaetostoma machiquense Fernández-Yépez & Martín Salazar 1953 –ense, Latin suffix denoting place: west of Machiques, Estado Zulia, Venezuela, type locality

Chaetostoma marginatum Regan 1904 Latin for bordered, perhaps referring to “narrow light edge” on caudal fin

Chaetostoma marmorescens Eigenmann & Allen 1942 marmoratus (L.), marbled; –escens (L.), becoming, referring to uniform dark-brown coloration with “indications of marbling”

Chaetostoma microps Günther 1864 micro-, from mikrós (Gr. μικρός), small; ṓps (Gr. ὦψ), eye, referring to its “very small” eye, diameter ~ ⅑ length of head and <⅓ width of interorbital space

Chaetostoma milesi Fowler 1941 in honor of Cecil W. Miles, Secretary of the Dorada Railway (and an ichthyologist), Mariqueta, Tolima Department, Colombia

Chaetostoma niveum Fowler 1944 Latin for snowy, referring to small “crowded” whitish spots on trunk and fins

Chaetostoma nudirostre Lütken 1874 nudus (L.), bare or naked; rostre, Neo-Latin scientific adjective of rostrum (L.), snout, referring to “front side” of head “soft, smooth, without tentacles” (translation)

Chaetostoma orientale Meza-Vargas, Calegari, Lujan, Ballen, Oyakawa, Sousa, Rapp Py-Daniel & Reis 2022 Latin for eastern, the easternmost species of the genus

Chaetostoma palmeri Regan 1912 in honor of Mervyn George Palmer (1882–1954), English naturalist, traveller and collector in Central and South America for the British Museum, who collected holotype

Chaetostoma patiae Fowler 1945 of Río Patia, Pacific slope of southwestern Colombia, elevation 915 m, type locality

Chaetostoma paucispinis Regan 1912 paucus (L.), few; spinis, from spina (L.), thorn, referring to two interopercular spines, fewer than C. lepturus and C. palmeri, described in the same paper

Chaetostoma pearsei Eigenmann 1920 in honor of American zoologist Arthur Sperry Pearse (1877–1956), University of Wisconsin, who collected holotype

Chaetostoma platyrhynchus (Fowler 1943) broad-snouted, from platýs (Gr. πλατύς), wide or broad, and rhýnchos (Gr. ῥύγχος), snout, referring to its “broadly rounded” snout

Chaetostoma sacramento Meza-Vargas, Ramirez & Lujan 2024 named for the Pampa de Sacramento, a plain (pampa) in central Peru, where this catfish is currently known to exclusive­ly occur

Chaetostoma sovichthys Schultz 1944 in honor of Standard Oil Co. of Venezuela (SOV), for help while Schultz was a guest at the camps of the Lago Petroleum Corporation; ichthýs (Gr. ἰχθύς), fish

Chaetostoma spondylus Salcedo & Ortega 2015 named for Spondylus, a genus of thorny oysters (Spondylidae), referring to tuft of odontodes on trunk lateral dermal plates that resemble the thorny projections on this bivalve mollusc

Chaetostoma stannii Lütken 1874 in honor of German biologist Hermann Friedrich Stannius (1809–1883), who acquired holotype from “Karsten,” probably German botanist Gustav Karl Wilhelm Hermann Karsten (1817–1908), who may have collected it in Venezuela

Chaetostoma stroumpoulos Salcedo 2006 stroumpoulós (Gr. στρουμπουλός), plump, referring to its chubby appearance compared with other large-bodied congeners

Chaetostoma tachiraense Schultz 1944 –ense, Latin suffix denoting place: Río Táchira, Táchira state, Venezuela, type locality

Chaetostoma taczanowskii Steindachner 1882 in honor of Polish zoologist Władysław (or Ladislas) Taczanowski (1819-1890), who facilitated the shipment of trichomycterid catfish (and presumably other) specimens to Steindachner

Chaetostoma thomsoni Regan 1904 in honor of Mr. Kay Thomson (no other information available), who collected type in Colombia

Chaetostoma trimaculineum Lujan, Meza-Vargas, Astudillo, Barriga Salazar & López-Fernández 2015 tri– (L.), three; macula (L.) spot; lineum, unnecessary neuterization of linea (L.), line, referring to three distinctive rows of spots along the flanks [name is a noun in apposition per Nathan K. Lujan, pers. comm.]

Chaetostoma vasquezi Lasso & Provenzano 1998 in honor of hydrobiologist Enrique Vásquez, Fundación La Salle de Ciencias Naturales (Bolivar, Venezuela), for his “pioneering” (translation) contributions to the limnology of Venezuela, where this catfish is endemic

Chaetostoma venezuelae (Schultz 1944) of Venezuela, where it is endemic to the Río San Juan basin

Chaetostoma yurubiense Ceas & Page 1996 –ense, Latin suffix denoting place: Parque Nacional Yurubi (Lara, Venezuela), where stream containing type locality originates

Cordylancistrus Isbrücker 1980 cordylo, from kordylē (Gr. κορδύλη), club or swelling, referring to exceptionally wide head of C. torbesensis; Ancistrus, type genus of tribe Ancestrini

Cordylancistrus daguae (Eigenmann 1912) of the Río Dagua basin, Colombia, where it is endemic

Cordylancistrus nephelion Provenzano & Milani 2006 nephélion (Gr. νεφέλῐον), of clouds in urine or a cloud-like opacity on the eye (authors say cloud-like spots), referring to irregular white spots on head and body

Cordylancistrus perijae Pérez & Provenzano R. 1996 of the Sierra de Perijá, a branch of the Eastern Andes Mountains, Maracaibo Basin, Zulia, Venezuela, type locality

Cordylancistrus pijao Provenzano R. & Villa-Navarro 2017 named for the Pijao, indigenous people of Colombia, symbol of Tolima, Colombia (where this catfish occurs), “who preferred to die rather than submit to Spanish monarchy”

Cordylancistrus setosus (Boulenger 1887) Latin for bristly, referring to bristles on snout, “short and fine” on the female and “long and strong” on the males

Cordylancistrus tayrona Provenzano R., Milani & Ardila 2017 named for Tayrona culture or the Tayrona nation, an indigenous group that occupied the area of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (where this catfish occurs), and more broadly northeastern Colombia; an “homage to these brave and clever people and to their descendants who today live restricted in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta”

Cordylancistrus torbesensis (Schultz 1944) –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Río Torbes, Orinoco drainage, Venezuela, type locality

Corymbophanes Eigenmann 1909 corymbo-, from kórymbos (Gr. κόρυμβος), summit; phanḗs, (Gr. φανής), visible, allusion not explained, perhaps referring to the fact that Eigenmann obtained C. andersoni at Aruataima Falls on the Upper Potaro River, the “farthest point” in his Guyana travels, beyond which he did not explore

Corymbophanes ameliae Lujan, Armbruster, Werneke, Teixeira & Lovejoy 2019 of Amelia, a Patamona Amerindian girl who disappeared near Amaila Falls, Guyana (where this species occurs upstream of the falls) in the late 19th century; the falls are named for her (but her name was misspelled)

Corymbophanes andersoni Eigenmann 1909 in honor of geologist Charles Wilgress Anderson (1867–?), Government Surveyor, who probably in some way facilitated Eigenmann’s expedition to Guyana

Corymbophanes kaiei Armbruster & Sabaj Pérez 2000 of Kaie, a character from Amerindian legend for whom Kaieutur Falls in Guyana is named: some accounts describe him as a great chieftain who sacrificed himself by canoeing over the falls in order to save his war-stricken tribe, upon which a great spirit transformed his body, canoe and the goods within it into the rocks at the bottom of the falls, whereas another account describes Kaie as a burdensome old man who was sent over the falls by his fellow tribesmen; either way, like Kaie, the genus has “never been successful at traversing the falls”

Cryptancistrus Fisch-Muller, Mol & Covain 2018 cryptos, from kryptόs (Gr. κρυπτός), hidden, distinguished from Guyanancistrus by its unique barcode sequence, not from any unique morphological character; Ancistrus, type genus of tribe Ancistrini

Cryptancistrus similis Fisch-Muller, Mol & Covain 2018 Latin for like or resembling, referring to its “strong morphological resemblance” to the Guyanancistrus brevispinus species complex

Dekeyseria Rapp Py-Daniel 1985 –ia (L. suffix), belonging to: French zoologist Pierre Louis Dekeyser (1914–1984), Universidade Federal da Paraíba (João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil)

Dekeyseria amazonica Rapp Py-Daniel 1985 –ica (L.), belonging to: Amazonas, Brazil, type locality and/or distribution in the central Amazon River basin of Brazil

Dekeyseria niveata (La Monte 1929) scientific Neo-Latin from niveus (L.), snowy, referring to conspicuous light spots everywhere on body except under surface of caudal peduncle, which is plain buff

Dekeyseria picta (Kner 1854) Latin for painted or colored, referring to irregular yellowish spots on brownish head and body, partly confluent into crossbands

Dekeyseria scaphirhyncha (Kner 1854) shovel-nosed, from skaphís (Gr. σκαφίς), shovel, and rhýnchos (Gr. ῥύγχος), snout, referring to flat, shovel-shaped snout of S. rafinesquii (=platorynchus), referring to its depressed head with very broad snout, obtusely rounded in front

Dolichancistrus Isbrücker 1980 dolichós (Gr. δολιχός), long; ancistrus, a root name for many hypostomine genera that have clusters of enlarged evertible cheek odontodes, from ágkistron (Gr. ἄγκιστρον), fishhook or hook of a spindle

Dolichancistrus atratoensis (Dahl 1960) –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: upper Atrato River basin, Colombia, type locality

Dolichancistrus carnegiei (Eigenmann 1916) in honor of Scottish-born American industrialist Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919), founder of the Carnegie Museum, which supported and published many of Eigenmann’s studies

Dolichancistrus cobrensis (Schultz 1944) –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Río Cobre, Lake Maracaibo basin, Venezuela, type locality

Dolichancistrus fuesslii (Steindachner 1911) patronym not identified, probably in honor of Anton Heinrich Hermann Fassl (1876–1922), German commercial butterfly and beetle collector, who may have collected holotype (he collected butterflies in the same region of Colombia in 1911); Steindachner’s spelling, füsslii, is apparently a printer’s error since he correctly spelled the name in 1915 (the characid Astyanax fasslii and the catfish Trichomycterus fassli [the latter with a single i], but since there is no internal evidence that the name honored Fassl, the original spelling is retained)

Exastilithoxus Isbrücker & Nijssen 1979 éxastis (Gr. ἔξαστις), fringe or rough edge, referring to numerous barbels on upper and lower lips of E. fimbriatus; Lithoxus, referring to previous placement of that species in that genus

Exastilithoxus fimbriatus (Steindachner 1915) Latin for fringed, referring to numerous barbels on upper and lower lips

Exastilithoxus hoedemani Isbrücker & Nijssen 1985 in memory of Dutch ichthyologist Jacobus Johannes Hoedeman (1917–1982)

Guyanancistrus Isbrücker 2001 Guyana, referring to French Guiana, where the first three included species are endemic; Ancistrus, type genus of tribe Ancistrini

Guyanancistrus brevispinis (Heitmans, Nijssen & Isbrücker 1983) brevis (L.), short; spinis, from spina (L.), thorn, referring to shorter evertible interopercular odontodes compared with G. longispinis

Guyanancistrus brevispinis bifax Fisch-Muller, Mol & Covain 2018 Latin for two-faced, referring to different appearances of its head (some populations exhibit an enlarged forehead, usually coupled with a slightly longer snout, head and/or predorsal length, as well as an enlarged mouth, differences apparently not linked to sex)

Guyanancistrus brevispinis orientalis Fisch-Muller, Mol & Covain 2018 Latin for eastern, referring to its distribution in eastern French Guiana, east of the other two subspecies

Guyanancistrus brownsbergensis Mol, Fisch-Muller & Covain 2018 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Brownsberg Nature Park in Brownsberg Mountains, Suriname, type locality

Guyanancistrus longispinis (Heitmans, Nijssen & Isbrücker 1983) longus (L.), long; spinis, from spina (L.), thorn, referring to longer evertible interopercular odontodes compared with G. brevispinis

Guyanancistrus megastictus Fisch-Muller, Mol & Covain 2018 large-spotted, from mégas (Gr. μέγας), large or great, and stiktós (Gr. στικτός), marked or spotted, referring to very large spots on body and fins

Guyanancistrus nassauensis Mol, Fisch-Muller & Covain 2018 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Nassau Mountains, Suriname, where type locality (Paramaka Creek, Marowijne River drainage) is situated

Guyanancistrus niger (Norman 1926) Latin for dark or black, referring to blackish head, body and fins

Guyanancistrus tenuis Fisch-Muller, Mol & Covain 2018 Latin for thin or slender, referring to its slenderer body compared with G. nassauensis and G. megastictus

Guyanancistrus teretirostris Fisch-Muller, Mol & Covain 2018 teres (L.), rounded; rostris, Neo-Latin scientific adjective of rostrum (L.), snout, which is “fully rounded anteriorly”

Hemiancistrus Bleeker 1862 hemi-, from hḗmisys (Gr. ἥμισυς), half, i.e., similar to Ancistrus (genus in which type species, H. medians, had originally been placed)

Hemiancistrus cerrado de Souza, Melo, Chamon & Armbruster 2008 named for the Cerrado region of central Brazil, where it occurs

Hemiancistrus chlorostictus Cardoso & Malabarba 1999 green-spotted, from chlōrós (Gr. χλωρός), green, and stiktós (Gr. στικτός), marked or spotted, referring to light-green spots on body and fins

Hemiancistrus fuliginosus Cardoso & Malabarba 1999 Latin for painted black or sooty, referring to grayish-black coloration with no distinctive markings

Hemiancistrus furtivus Provenzano & Barriga 2017 Latin for secret, furtive or clandestine, referring to its having escaped notice or detection despite occurring in the Ecuadorian Pacific region, one of the best known ichthyologically

Hemiancistrus guahiborum Werneke, Armbruster, Lujan & Taphorn 2005 –orum (L.), commemorative suffix, plural: Guahibo, a tribe of people inhabiting parts of southern Venezuela and western Colombia, for the help they provided in collecting specimens

Hemiancistrus hammarlundi Rendahl 1937 in honor of Swedish botanist Carl Hammarlund (1884–1965), who collected holotype

Hemiancistrus landoni Eigenmann 1916 in honor of American businessman and philanthropist Hugh McKennan Landon (1867–1947), who helped finance expedition during which holotype was collected

Hemiancistrus medians (Kner 1854) Latin for in the middle, presumed to be an intermediate form between long- and short-finned Ancistrus, its presumed genus at the time

Hemiancistrus megalopteryx Cardoso 2004 mégas (Gr. μέγας), large or great; ptéryx (πτέρυξ), fin, referring to the long pectoral fin of males, up to 46.4% of SL

Hemiancistrus meizospilos Cardoso & da Silva 2004 meizōn (Gr. μείζων), comparative of mégas (μέγας), i.e., greater or larger; spílos (Gr. σπίλος), mark or spot, referring to larger size of dots compared with white-spotted congeners of southern Brazil

Hemiancistrus punctulatus Cardoso & Malabarba 1999 diminutive of punctum (L.), spot, i.e., having tiny spots, referring to small dark spots on dorsal and lateral plates

Hemiancistrus subviridis Werneke, Sabaj Pérez, Lujan & Armbruster 2005 sub(L.), less or under; viridis (L.), green, i.e., greenish, referring to olive base color in life

Hemiancistrus votouro Cardoso & da Silva 2004 named for the Votouro Indian Reserve, situated on Benjamin Constant, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, type locality

Hopliancistrus Isbrücker & Nijssen 1989 hóplon (Gr. ὅπλον), shield or armor, referring to conspicuous odontodes on mouth and cheek of males; Ancistrus, type genus of tribe Ancistrini

Hopliancistrus munduruku de Oliveira, Zuanon, Py-Daniel, Birindelli & Sousa 2021 named for the Munduruku, a large indigenous group inhabiting a large part of southwestern Pará State, Brazil, along the Rio Tapajós (where this catfish occurs); they are “well known for being powerful warriors and great strategists, and in recent years they have drawn much attention for the fight against the hydroelectric dams” where they live

Hopliancistrus tricornis Isbrücker & Nijssen 1989 tri– (L.), three; cornis (L.), horn, referring to three horn-shaped odontodes along the interopercular in both sexes

Hopliancistrus wolverine de Oliveira, Zuanon, Py-Daniel, Birindelli & Sousa 2021 named for the mustelid mammal Gulo gulo, also known as wolverine, glutton, carcajou, skunk bear, or quickhatch, referring to its “blunt stature, strong claws, and ferocity”

Hopliancistrus xavante de Oliveira, Zuanon, Py-Daniel, Birindelli & Sousa 2021 named for the Xavante, an indigenous ethnic group nowadays inhabiting several lands that form part of their earlier territory of traditional occupation, including areas in Mato Grosso, Brazil, where this catfish occurs

Hopliancistrus xikrin de Oliveira, Zuanon, Py-Daniel, Birindelli & Sousa 2021 named for the Xikrin, an indigenous ethnic group inhabiting the margins of the rio Bacajá, Pará, Brazil, where this catfish occurs; the Xikrin are related to the Kayapo people, with whom they share the “same self-denomination, [and] cultural characteristics such as body painting patterns, language, residence and marital relations, rituals, chants, and naming system”

Hypancistrus Isbrücker & Nijssen 1991 hypó (Gr. ὑπό), somewhat or a little, referring to fewer number of teeth of H. zebra compared with most other members of the tribe Ancistrini; Ancistrus, type genus of tribe Ancistrini

Hypancistrus contradens Armbruster, Lujan & Taphorn 2007 contra (L.), opposite; dens (L.), tooth, referring to differently shaped teeth in dentary and premaxilla

Hypancistrus debilittera Armbruster, Lujan & Taphorn 2007 debilis (L.), weak; littera (L.), a letter, referring to absent or indistinct E-shaped mark on snout (compared with distinct mark on H. furunculus and H. zebra)

Hypancistrus furunculus Armbruster, Lujan & Taphorn 2007 Latin for a petty thief or pilferer, referring to dark band between eyes, similar to a bandit’s mask

Hypancistrus inspector Armbruster 2002 Latin for observer, referring to its large eyes (etymology section inadvertently deleted from publication; explanation per Jonathan W. Armbruster, pers. comm.)

Hypancistrus margaritatus Tan & Armbruster 2016 Latin for adorned with pearls, referring to dense white spots on body

Hypancistrus phantasma Tan & Armbruster 2016 phántasma (Gr. φάντασμα), apparition, phantom or ghost, referring to its elusiveness (the described specimens are the only known specimens, despite nearly a century passing since their collection) and its pale body coloration

Hypancistrus lunaorum Armbruster, Lujan & Taphorn 2007 –orum (L.), commemorative suffix, plural: in honor of the Luna family, founders of the village of Macurucu on the Río Orinoco near the mouth of the Ventauri (Amazonas, Venezuela), for their “progressive interest in the development of Macurucu via promotion of scientific research,” which was indispensable in the completion of the authors’ fieldwork

Hypancistrus vandragti (Lujan & Armbruster 2011) in honor of Randy Van Dragt, Professor of Biology at Calvin College (Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA) since 1981, “whose patient introduction to tropical ecology and fish ecomorphology benefitted the first author immeasurably”

Hypancistrus zebra Isbrücker & Nijssen 1991 named for its striped, zebra-like color pattern

Hypostomus Lacepède 1803 hypó (Gr. ὑπό), under; stomus, from stóma (Gr. στόμα), mouth, referring to ventral position of mouth

Hypostomus affinis (Steindachner 1877) Latin for related, referring to its “remarkably close” appearance (translation) to H. commersoni

Hypostomus agna (Miranda Ribeiro 1907) latinization of Anhá, local name for this catfish in São Paulo, Brazil

Hypostomus alatus Castelnau 1855 Latin for winged, allusion not explained, perhaps referring to high dorsal fin

Hypostomus albopunctatus (Regan 1908) albus (L.), white; punctatus (L.), spotted, referring to small rounded whitish spots on head, body and fins

Hypostomus ancistroides (Ihering 1911) Neo-Latin from eī́dos (εἶδος), form or shape: referring to its resemblance to some species of Ancistrus

Hypostomus angipinnatus (Leege 1922) angi-, presumably from angustus (L.), narrow or short; pinnatus (L.), finned, referring to “short distance of the dorsal fins” (translation), i.e., short distance between dorsal and adipose fins

Hypostomus annectens (Regan 1904) Latin for linking or joining, reflecting Regan’s belief that it has the “general form” of Plecostomus guacari (=H. plecostomus) and species of the “old genus” Pterygoplichthys, with the number of dorsal rays of the former and the movable interoperculum of the latter

Hypostomus arecuta Cardoso, Almirón, Casciotta, Aichino, Lizarralde & Montoya-Burgos 2012 arecutá, Guaraní word for loricariid fish

Hypostomus argus (Fowler 1943) named for Argus, mythical hundred-eyed guardian of Io, whose eyes after death were transformed into the feathers of a peacock, referring to its “innumerable” dark spots

Hypostomus asperatus Castelnau 1855 Latin for rough, referring to small granular scales on head and most of body

Hypostomus aspidolepis (Günther 1867) aspídos (Gr. ἀσπίδος), genitive of aspís (ἀσπίς), shield; lepίs (Gr. λεπίς), scale, probably referring to body scutes, each with a prominent keel and 4–7 short setiform spines

Hypostomus aspilogaster (Cope 1894) áspilos (Gr. άσπιλος), spotless; gastḗr (Gr. γαστήρ), belly or stomach, referring to unspotted belly compared with spotted belly of the similar Plecostomus limosus (=H. commersoni)

Hypostomus atropinnis (Eigenmann & Eigenmann 1890) atro-, from ater (L.), black; pinnis, Neo-Latin adjective of pinna (L.), fin, described as a subspecies of H. lima with “uniform dark brown” fins

Hypostomus auroguttatus Kner 1854 aureus (L.), golden; guttatus (L.), spotted, referring to irregular yellowish spots on body, sometimes confluent into bands

Hypostomus basilisko Tencatt, Zawadzki & Froehlich 2014 basilískos (Gr. βᾰσῐλῐ́σκος), “little king,” a mythical creature known as the king of snakes, often represented wearing a crown, referring to three strong ridges on top of this catfish’s head

Hypostomus bimbai Zawadzki & Penido 2021 in honor of José Manoel dos Reis Machado (1899–1974), commonly called Mestre Bimba, a master practitioner of the Brazilian martial art of capoeira, created by Africans and their descendants enslaved by Portuguese colonists in the 18th and 19th centuries; Mestre Bimba created the Regional style of capoeira characterized by more acrobatic moves and more aggressive punches, and was responsible for the legalization of capoeira in 1930 [see also H. pastinhai and Eigenmannia besouro, Gymnotiformes: Sternopygidae]

Hypostomus bolivianus (Pearson 1924) –anus (L.), belonging to Bolivia, where it is endemic to the Río Beni basin

Hypostomus borellii (Boulenger 1897) in honor of French-born Italian zoologist Alfredo Borelli (1858–1943), Università di Torino, who led three expeditions to South America and collected many animals, including holotype of this one

Hypostomus boulengeri (Eigenmann & Kennedy 1903) patronym not identified but clearly in honor of Belgian-born British ichthyologist-herpetologist George A. Boulenger (1858–1937), British Museum (Natural History)

Hypostomus brevicauda (Günther 1864) brevis (L.), short; cauda (L.), tail, referring to its “obliquely subtruncated” caudal fin

Hypostomus brevis (Nichols 1919) Latin for short, “notable for its very short body”

Hypostomus cafuringa Soares, Aquino, Bagley, Langeani & Colli 2021 named for the Cafuringa Environmental Protection Area and the Cafuringa stream, Distrito Federal, Brazil, where this catfish occurs

Hypostomus careopinnatus Martins, Marinho, Langeani & Serra 2012 careo, be deprived of; pinnatus, finned, referring to absence of adipose fin

Hypostomus cari Lustosa-Costa, Ramos, Zawadzki, Jacobina & Lima 2024 one of the local names that riverside fishermen from the Parnaíba River (Maranhão, Brazil) and other regions refer to loricariid catfishes, such as those of the genus Hypostomus

Hypostomus carinatus (Steindachner 1881) Latin for keeled, referring to 30 strongly carinate (or keeled) scutes along sides

Hypostomus caudofasciatus Zawadzki & Azevedo 2024 cauda (L.), tail; fasciatus (L.), banded or striped, referring to conspicuous longitudinal dark stripes on the caudal fin

Hypostomus cochliodon Kner 1854 cochlio, from cochlearium (L.), a small Roman spoon with a long tapering handle; odon, Latinized and grammatically adjusted from the Greek nominative ὀδούς (odoús), tooth, referring to 7–8 short teeth on both sides of jaw, which terminate in a dilated spoon-like crown

Hypostomus commersoni Valenciennes 1836 in honor of French naturalist Philibert Commerçon (also spelled Commerson, 1727–1773), who provided an illustration of this species which Lacépède confused with H. plecostomus in 1803

Hypostomus coppenamensis Boeseman 1969 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: upper Coppename River basin, Suriname, where it is endemic

Hypostomus corantijni Boeseman 1968 of the Corantijn River basin, Suriname, where it is endemic

Hypostomus cordovae (Günther 1880) of Cordova (actually Córdoba), Argentina, type locality [treated as a junior synonym of H. paranensis by some workers]

Hypostomus crassicauda Boeseman 1968 crassus (L.), thick or stout; cauda (L.), tail, referring to its “very stout” caudal peduncle

Hypostomus crulsi Soares, Aquino, Bagley, Langeani & Colli 2021 in honor of Luiz Ferdinando Cruls (1848–1908), Belgian engineer and naturalized Brazilian who served as director of the Imperial Observatory of Rio de Janeiro; he led the Central Plateau Exploration Commission of Brazil, which was responsible for demarcating an area for the installation of Brasília, the future capital of Brazil, and which now comprises the known distribution of this catfish

Hypostomus dardanelos Zawadzki & Carvalho 2014 named for the Dardanelos cachoeira (waterfall), Aripuanã, Mato Grosso, Brazil, where this species was collected in rapids downstream of the falls

Hypostomus delimai Zawadzki, de Oliveira & Debona 2013 in honor of Flávio César Thadeo de Lima (b. 1974), Universidade Estadual de Campinas, for numerous contributions to Neotropical ichthyology

Hypostomus denticulatus Zawadzki, Weber & Pavanelli 2008 –atus (L.), adjective suffix; denticulus (L.) small tooth, i.e., small-toothed, referring to smaller and therefore more numerous teeth on dentary and premaxilla than all congeners except H. multidens and H. ternetzi

Hypostomus derbyi (Haseman 1911) in honor of American geologist Orville A. Derby (1851–1915), “who has spent thirty-five years in the cause of science in Brazil, and who rendered [Haseman] more assistance than any other man in South America”

Hypostomus dlouhyi Weber 1985 in honor of Czech-born biologist Carlo Dlouhy, Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Genève (Switzerland), who collected holotype

Hypostomus ericae Hollanda Carvalho & Weber 2005 in honor of Erica Pellegrini Caramaschi, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, who helped collect holotype, for her “great” contributions to the knowledge of fish ecology

Hypostomus ericius Armbruster 2003 Latin for sea-urchin (Armbruster said hedgehog, which would be erinaceus), referring to the many sharp odontodes on the keels

Hypostomus faveolus Zawadzki, Birindelli & Lima 2008 Neo-Latin diminutive of favus (L.), honeycomb, referring to color pattern formed by pale blotches with thin dark limits

Hypostomus fluviatilis (Schubart 1964) Latin for “of a river,” presumably referring to its occurrence in strong river current

Hypostomus fonchii Weber & Montoya-Burgos 2002 in honor of the late Fonchii Chang (1963–1999), Peruvian ichthyologist of Chinese and Japanese ancestry, Museo de Historia Natural (Lima, Peru), who “disappeared tragically”; she died, along with her motorista, in a boat accident near Lake Rimachi, Peru; she was wearing rubber boots, which filled with water and anchored her to the bottom, where she was shocked by an electric eel, knocked unconscious and drowned [a noun in apposition, without the matronymic “ae”]

Hypostomus formosae Cardoso, Brancolini, Paracampo, Lizarralde, Covain & Montoya-Burgos 2016 of Formosa Province, Argentina, type locality

Hypostomus francisci (Lütken 1874) of the rio São Francisco, Brazil, type locality

Hypostomus freirei Penido, Pessali & Zawadzki 2021 in honor of Brazilian educator Paulo Reglus Neves Freire (1921–1997), for his “pioneering” role in contemporary humanistic pedagogy, promoting “substantial advances in the theory of literacy and methods of teaching,” which in turn has “generated great influence in several areas of knowledge such as philosophy, theology, anthropology, social work and sociology”

Hypostomus froehlichi Zawadzki, Nardi & Tencatt 2021 in honor of Otávio Froehlich (1958–2015), “beloved” friend and ichthyologist who devoted most of his career studying fishes from the Bodoquena Plateau, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, where this catfish occurs

Hypostomus fuscomaculatus Zawadzki & Silva 2022 fuscus (L.), dark, swarthy or dusky; maculatus (L.), spotted, referring to large and widely spaced black blotches on living specimens; in preserved specimens, the blotches usually fade to brown but stay evident for a long time under proper fixation and storage

Hypostomus garmani (Regan 1904) in honor of American ichthyologist-herpetologist Samuel Garman (1843–1927), Harvard University, who loaned types and sent specimens to the British Museum (Natural History)

Hypostomus goyazensis (Regan 1908) –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Goiás, Brazil, type locality

Hypostomus guajupia Penido, Pessali & Zawadzki 2021 Guajupiá, Tupí-Guaraní name for a mythical place analogous to the Fields of Reeds for the ancient Egyptians, the Elysian Fields for the classical Greeks, and Heaven for Christians, a “place beyond the mountains, where the righteous souls would meet their ancestors and live eternally in health, justice, pleasure and joy,” in tribute to the 259 dead and 11 missing people due to the January 2019 collapse of the Córrego do Feijão tailings dam in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, Brazil, where this catfish occurs

Hypostomus gymnorhynchus (Norman 1926) bare-snouted, from gymnós (Gr. γυμνός), bare or naked, and rhýnchos (Gr. ῥύγχος), snout, referring to a “rather broad naked margin” on snout

Hypostomus hemicochliodon Armbruster 2003 hemi-, from hḗmisys (Gr. ἥμισυς), half; cochlio, from cochlearium (L.), a small Roman spoon with a long tapering handle; odon, Latinized and grammatically adjusted from the Greek nominative ὀδούς (odoús), tooth, referring to its teeth, which are “about half as spoonshaped” as those of wood-specializing members of the H. cochliodon group, to which it belongs

Hypostomus hemiurus (Eigenmann 1912) half-tailed, from hḗmisys (Gr. ἥμισυς), half, and urus, from ourá (Gr. οὐρά), tail, presumably referring to its oblique, emarginate caudal fin, its lower rays usually less than twice the length of its middle rays

Hypostomus heraldoi Zawadzki, Weber & Pavanelli 2008 in honor of Brazilian ichthyologist Heraldo A. Britski (b. 1934), Universidade de São Paulo, for his “extensive” contributions to our knowledge of Neotropical fish diversity

Hypostomus hermanni (Ihering 1905) in honor of Ihering’s father, German-Brazilian zoologist Hermann von Ihering (1850–1930)

Hypostomus holostictus (Regan 1913) hólos (Gr. ὅλος), whole or entire; stiktós (Gr. στικτός), marked or spotted, presumably referring to head, body and fins covered with round dark spots

Hypostomus hondae (Regan 1912) of Honda, Colombia, type locality

Hypostomus hoplonites Rapp Py-Daniel 1988 hoplítis (Gr. ὁπλίτης), a heavily armed warrior, referring to its general appearance, heavily armed with plates and spines (Lucia Rapp Py-Daniel, pers. comm.)

Hypostomus iheringii (Regan 1908) in honor of Rodolpho von Ihering (1883–1939), zoologist and fish culturist, who collected holotype (and several other loricariids described in the same paper)

Hypostomus interruptus (Miranda Ribeiro 1918) Latin for interrupted, referring to how alignment of plates on mid-dorsal keel are misaligned between anterior and posterior halves of body due to a series of plates in front of dorsal fin

Hypostomus isbrueckeri Reis, Weber & Malabarba 1990 in honor of Dutch ichthyologist Isaäc J. H. Isbrücker (b. 1944), Zoological Museum in Amsterdam, “who has extensively contributed to the knowledge of loricariid diversity”

Hypostomus itacua Valenciennes 1836 from yaru itacu, local name for this and similar catfishes along the Rio de la Plata in Argentina

Hypostomus jaguar Zanata, Sardeiro & Sawadzki 2013 Tupí-Guaraní word for panther, referring to black-dotted color pattern on a clear background

Hypostomus johnii (Steindachner 1877) in honor of American geologist Orestes Saint John (1841–1921), who collected holotype during Thayer Expedition to Brazil (1865–1866)

Hypostomus khimaera Tencatt, Zawadzki & Froehlich 2014 khímaira (Gr. χíμαιρα), a mythological creature with a hybrid body formed by three animals (lion, snake, goat), referring to possession of features comparable to “conspicuously distinct” species

Hypostomus kopeyaka Carvalho, Lima & Zawadzki 2010 named for its common name among the Tuyuka and Tukano Indians of Brazil and Colombia, kope yaka, or kope ya’ka, meaning “pleco from the holes,” referring to the Indians’ belief that they spend most of their time hiding in holes in the river banks

Hypostomus krikati Oliveira, Guimarães, Brito & Ottoni 2022 named for the Krikati native people, a Jê-speaking culture, occurring in the Gurupi Mosaic region, a transition zone between the Amazon rainforest and the Brazilian Cerrado, where this catfish occurs

Hypostomus krishnamurtii Zawadzki, Penido & Lucinda 2020 in honor of Indian philosopher, writer and lecturer Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986), for his contributions and life-long dedication to the improvement of mankind; he travelled the world encouraging audiences to abandon dogmas and institutional authorities and to find their own answers, and founded schools where children were taught to think by themselves, believing that educators were the greatest individuals on Earth

Hypostomus kuarup Zawadzki, Birindelli & Lima 2012 named for Kuarup, or Quarup, an origin myth and a festivity shared by most of the ethnical groups living in the upper portion of the Xingu Indigenous Park; the first Kuarup is said to have taken place at the Saginhenhu, a locality recently identified by the Indians as being the Cachoeira do Adelino (Mato Grosso, Brazil), one of the localities from which this catfish is known

Hypostomus labyrinthus de Oliveira, Ribeiro, Canto & Zawadzki 2020 labyrinth, referring to irregular reticulated color pattern on head and anterior portion of trunk

Hypostomus lamberti Penido, Pessali & Zawadzki 2023 in honor of Brazilian ichthyologist Mauro César Lambert de Brito Ribeiro (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística), for his contributions to knowledge of the diversity and distribution of fishes in the central plateau of Brazil

Hypostomus laplatae (Eigenmann 1907) of the Río La Plata basin, Argentina, type locality

Hypostomus latifrons Weber 1986 latus (L.), wide or broad; frons (L.), forehead, referring to its particularly large interorbital space

Hypostomus latirostris (Regan 1904) latus (L.), wide; rostris, Neo-Latin scientific adjective of rostrum (L.), snout, referring to its “broad, rounded” snout

Hypostomus leucophaeus Tanaka & Pitanga 2016 Latin for ash-colored or dun, referring to higher contrast between dark spots and light-brown ground color

Hypostomus levis (Pearson 1924) Latin for smooth, allusion not explained, possibly referring to lower surface of head and abdomen covered with “small granular plates” (as opposed to “small spinulose plates” Pearson described for H. plecostomus)

Hypostomus lima (Lütken 1874) Latin for file or rasp, allusion not explained, perhaps referring to “granulated” strip on each side of lower lip and/or “granulated” pelvic-fin spine (translation)

Hypostomus longiradiatus (Holly 1929) longus (L.), long; radiatus (L.), rayed, referring to first dorsal-fin ray, which is as long as the head

Hypostomus luetkeni (Steindachner 1877) in honor of Danish zoologist Christian Frederik Lütken (1827–1901), who identified this catfish as H. lima in 1874

Hypostomus luteomaculatus (Devincenzi 1942) luteus (L.), yellow; maculatus (L.), spotted, referring to yellow spots all over fins and body

Hypostomus luteus (Godoy 1980) Latin for yellow, referring to its yellow-orange color in life

Hypostomus macrophthalmus Boeseman 1968 big-eyed, from makrós (Gr. μακρός), long or large, and ophthalmós (Gr. ὀφθαλμός), eye, described as a subspecies of H. pseudohemiurus with a larger eye

Hypostomus macrops (Eigenmann & Eigenmann 1888) macro-, from makrós (Gr. μακρός), long or large; ṓps (Gr. ὦψ), eye, referring to larger eyes compared with H. lima

Hypostomus macushi Armbruster & de Souza 2005 named for the Macushi people of the northern Rupununi, who provided the authors with a lot of help and hospitality on their journeys in southern Guyana, and who collected most of the best specimens in the type series

Hypostomus maracaiboensis (Schultz 1944) –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Lake Maracaibo basin, Venezuela, where it is endemic

Hypostomus margaritifer (Regan 1908) margarita (L.), pearl; -ifer, from fero (L.), to have or bear, i.e., pearly, presumably referring to “rounded pale spots” scattered on head and body

Hypostomus melanephelis Zawadzki, Oliveira, de Oliveira & Rapp Py-Daniel 2015 melano-, mélanos (Gr. μέλανος), genitive of mélas (μέλας), black; éphēlis (Gr. ἔφηλις), freckle, referring to color pattern formed by tiny dark dots along head and body

Hypostomus meleagris (Marini, Nichols & La Monte 1933) meleagrís (Gr. μελεαγρίς), guineafowl, probably referring to “numerous more or less pronounced pale rounded spots” on back, sides and fins, reminiscent of the color pattern of a guinea fowl

Hypostomus micromaculatus Boeseman 1968 micro-, from mikrós (Gr. μικρός), small; maculatus (L.), spotted, referring to small, usually elongate, spots on fins and body, several on each scute

Hypostomus microstomus Weber 1987 small-mouthed, from mikrós (Gr. μικρός), small, and stóma (Gr. στόμα), mouth, distinguished easily by its very small mouth

Hypostomus minotauros Zawadzki, Penido, Pessali & Lucinda 2024 named for the Minotaur, from the Greek Μινώταυρος, a mythical creature with the head a bull and the body of a man, referring to the stout and blunt head of this species

Hypostomus multidens Jerep, Shibatta & Zawadzki 2007 multi– (L.), many; dens (L.), tooth, referring to high tooth number in each dentary (122–267) and premaxilla (115–260)

Hypostomus mutucae Knaack 1999 of the rio Mutuca, Mato Grosso, Brazil, type locality

Hypostomus myersi (Gosline 1947) in honor of American ichthyologist George S. Myers (1905–1985), Stanford University, “senior collector” of holotype, to whom Gosline is “indebted for a large part of what knowledge he may have acquired in the field of South American ichthyology”

Hypostomus nematopterus Isbrücker & Nijssen 1984 nḗmatos (Gr. νήματος), threaded; pterus, from pterón (Gr. πτερόν), fin, referring to its filamentous dorsal fin

Hypostomus niceforoi (Fowler 1943) in honor of Brother Hermano Nicéforo María (1888–1980), Museo del Instituto de La Salle, Bogotá; a Frenchman originally named Antoine Rouhaire Siauzade who became a missionary in Colombia under his monastic name, he sent collections of Colombian freshwater fishes to Fowler, including holotype of this species

Hypostomus nigrolineatus Zawadzki, Carvalho, Birindelli & Azevedo 2016 nigro-, from niger (L.), dark or black; lineatus (L.), lined or striped, referring to dark stripes on posterior sides of body, uncommon in the genus

Hypostomus nigromaculatus (Schubart 1964) nigro-, from niger (L.), dark or black; maculatus (L.), spotted, referring to blackish marks on each scute or plate, forming a striped pattern

Hypostomus nigropunctatus Garavello, Britski & Zawadzki 2012 nigro-, from niger (L.), dark or black; punctatus (L.), spotted, referring to dark spots on body and fins (compared with pale spots on congeners from rio Iguaçu basin)

Hypostomus obtusirostris (Steindachner 1907) obtusus (L.), blunt or dull; rostris, Neo-Latin scientific adjective of rostrum (L.), snout, presumably referring to its wide muzzle (“Schnauze breit”)

Hypostomus occidentalis Boeseman 1968 Latin for western, described as a western subspecies of H. gymnorhynchus

Hypostomus oculeus (Fowler 1943) Latin for full of eyes, referring to its “innumerable” small dark spots

Hypostomus pagei Armbruster 2003 in honor of American ichthyologist Lawrence M. Page (b. 1944), for his help and guidance during Armbruster’s career, and for helping to collect a majority of the specimens of this species

Hypostomus pantherinus Kner 1854 Latin for panther-like, referring to scattered round spots on head, body and fins

Hypostomus paranensis Weyenbergh 1877 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: lakes along Río Paraná, near Santa Fe, Argentina, type locality

Hypostomus pastinhai Zawadzki & Penido 2021 in honor of Vicente Joaquim Pereira (1889–1981), a master practitioner of the Brazilian martial art of capoeira, and “symbolic patron” of the Angola style, characterized by being more rhythmic, slow and malicious, with somewhat creeping movements low to the ground [see also H. bimbai and Eigenmannia besouro, Gymnotiformes: Sternopygidae]

Hypostomus paucimaculatus Boeseman 1968 paucus (L.), few; maculatus (L.), spotted, referring to larger and, therefore, fewer, spots on body compared to congeners in Suriname

Hypostomus paucipunctatus Hollanda Carvalho & Weber 2005 paucus (L.), few; punctatus (L.), spotted, referring to widely spaced spots covering body, compared with close-set spots on H. waiampi, H. oculeus and H. pyrineusi

Hypostomus paulinus (Ihering 1905) –inus (L.), belonging to: São Paulo, Brazil, where type locality (Rio Piracicaba) is situated

Hypostomus peckoltoides Zawadzki, Weber & Pavanelli 2010 Neo-Latin from eī́dos (εἶδος), form or shape: the related genus Peckoltia, which includes species with dark saddles similar to those found on this one

Hypostomus perdido Zawadzki, Tencatt & Froehlich 2014 named for the rio Perdido (Portuguese for lost), Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, type locality

Hypostomus piratatu Weber 1986 Pira-tatù, local Guaraní name for this catfish, meaning “armadillo fish”

Hypostomus plecostomoides (Eigenmann 1922) Neo-Latin from eī́dos (εἶδος), form or shape: the Plecostomus (=Hypostomus); originally placed in Cochliodon, which Eigenmann described as similar to Plecostomus but “with large unpointed teeth”

Hypostomus plecostomus (Linnaeus 1758) fold-mouthed, from plékō- (Gr. πλέκω), folded, pleated or twisted, and stóma (Gr. στόμα), mouth, presumably referring to its lips, which can be said to fold downward to form a suctorial mouth (the source of the common name “pleco”)

Hypostomus pseudohemiurus Boeseman 1968 pseudo-, from pseúdēs (Gr. ψεύδης), false, referring to how this species “at first sight strongly resembles” H. hemiurus, but such an appearance is false

Hypostomus punctatus Valenciennes 1840 Latin for spotted, referring to many small black dots on body and fins

Hypostomus pusarum (Starks 1913) –arum (L.), commemorative suffix, plural: in memory of the boys who collected this catfish with their hands and with dip-nets under overhanging grassy banks at Ceará-Mirim, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, “the best collectors we found in Brazil” (presumably based on a native word, meaning unknown)

Hypostomus pyrineusi (Miranda Ribeiro 1920) in honor of Miranda Ribeiro’s good friend Lieut. Antonio Pyrineus de Souza (d. 1936), a naturalist with the Rondon Commission to install telegraph poles from Mato Grosso to Amazonas, which included expedition that collected type

Hypostomus regani (Ihering 1905) in honor of English ichthyologist Charles Tate Regan (1878–1943), Natural History Museum (London), who offered advice and assured Ihering that his new species were distinct from those in Regan’s 1904 monograph on the family

Hypostomus renestoi Zawadzki, da Silva & Troy 2018 in honor of Brazilian ichthyologist Erasmo Renesto, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, for his contributions to the genetics of neotropical fishes

Hypostomus rhantos Armbruster, Tansey & Lujan 2007 rhantós (Gr. ῥαντός), sprinkled, speckled or spotted, referring to the tiny, randomly placed spots on body and head

Hypostomus robertsoni Dias & Zawadzki 2021 in honor of Robertson Fonseca de Azevedo, Brazilian environmental attorney, for his “large and constant efforts to preserve natural landscapes in the Paraná State, Brazil. Robertson faught [sic] to prevent unnecessary small hydroelectric power plants in the high gradient stretches along two main Upper Paraná River left tributaries, the Ivaí and Piquiri Rivers,” where this catfish occurs

Hypostomus robinii Valenciennes 1840 in honor of M. (Monsieur) Robin, probably French naturalist-explorer Charles-Cesár Robin (most famous for his 1807 account of his voyages through Louisiana, Florida and the West Indies), who provided holotype (a dried specimen) from Trinidad

Hypostomus rondoni (Miranda Ribeiro 1912) in honor of Cândido Rondon (1865–1958), Brazilian army engineer and explorer, whose Rondon Commission to install telegraph poles from Mato Grosso to Amazonas included expedition during which type was collected

Hypostomus roseopunctatus Reis, Weber & Malabarba 1990 roseus (L.), rose-colored or pink; punctatus (L.), dotted or spotted, referring to its color pattern

Hypostomus saramaccensis Boeseman 1968 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: middle Saramacca River, Suriname, type locality

Hypostomus scabriceps (Eigenmann & Eigenmann 1888) scaber (L.), rough; –ceps (Neo-Latin), headed, referring to lower surface of head covered with scutes

Hypostomus sculpodon Armbruster 2003 sculpo (L.), to carve, cut, grave, or chisel in stone, brass or wood; odon, Latinized and grammatically adjusted from the Greek nominative ὀδούς (odoús), tooth, referring to its ability to chisel wood with its teeth

Hypostomus seminudus (Eigenmann & Eigenmann 1888) semi-, from semis (L.), half; nudus (L.), bare or naked, referring to ventral surface “more or less naked” (sides of belly and a narrow band between ventrals covered with scutes)

Hypostomus sertanejo Zanata, Ramos & Sabaj 2017 Portuguese word for a person from the sertão, inland xerophitic region of north-eastern Brazil that is isolated from urban centers and associated with the Caatinga and the Cerrado biomes, where this catfish occurs; “Sertanejos are known to be shy and elusive as well as rustic and resilient,” presumably referring to both the people and the fish

Hypostomus simios Hollanda Carvalho & Weber 2005 from simós (Gr. σιμός), snub-nosed, referring to its profile

Hypostomus soniae Hollanda Carvalho & Weber 2005 in honor of Sonia Fisch-Muller, Muséum d’histoire naturelle (Geneva), specialist in loricariid systematics and one of the collectors of the type series

Hypostomus spiniger (Hensel 1870) spini-, from spina (L.), thorn; –iger (L.), to bear, i.e., spiny, allusion not explained, perhaps referring to dermal odontodes of holotype, described as keeled scales with tips “extending into small spines” (translation)

Hypostomus strigaticeps (Regan 1908) strigatus (L.), furrowed or grooved; –ceps, Neo-Latin, headed, referring to granular patch in front of each gill opening on an otherwise naked head

Hypostomus subcarinatus Castelnau 1855 sub– (L.), less than or somewhat; carinatus (L.), keeled, i.e., slightly keeled, presumably referring to four longitudinal ridges on sides

Hypostomus surinamensis Boeseman 1968 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: upper Suriname River drainage and/or Suriname, where it is endemic

Hypostomus taphorni (Lilyestrom 1984) in honor of American ichthyologist Donald C. Taphorn (b. 1951), colleague, friend, and student of Venezuelan fishes (he also helped collect holotype)

Hypostomus tapijara Oyakawa, Akama & Zanata 2005 Tupí word for “one who is sedentary” or “ancient dweller,” local name for this catfish along the Ribeira de Iguape basin of Brazil

Hypostomus tenuis Boeseman 1968 Latin for thin, a “a very slender species with a remarkably elongate [caudal] peduncle”

Hypostomus ternetzi (Boulenger 1895) in honor of Swiss-born ichthyologist and naturalist Carl Ternetz (1870–1928), who collected holotype

Hypostomus tietensis (Ihering 1905) –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: rio Tietê, São Paulo, Brazil, type locality (also endemic to the rio Tietê basin)

Hypostomus topavae (Godoy 1969) of topava, a zone of basaltic rocks that are exposed when the river is low, an important fishing location and where this catfish was collected

Hypostomus unae (Steindachner 1878) of the rio Una, rio Uru basin, Bahia State, Brazil, type locality

Hypostomus uruguayensis Reis, Weber & Malabarba 1990 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: rio Uruguay, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, type locality

Hypostomus vaillanti (Steindachner 1877) patronym not identified but probably in honor of French zoologist Léon Vaillant (1834–1914), Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (Paris)

Hypostomus variipictus (Ihering 1911) varius (L.), variegated, mottled, diverse or various; pictus (L.), painted, referring to white lines on dorsal-fin membranes and white spots that form transverse streaks on the other fins

Hypostomus varimaculosus (Fowler 1945) varius (L.), variegated, mottled, diverse or various; maculosus (L.), speckled, referring to its variegated color pattern

Hypostomus variostictus (Miranda Ribeiro 1912) varius (L.), variegated, mottled, diverse or various; stictus, from stiktós (Gr. στικτός), marked or spotted, probably referring to yellow and dark spots on body and fins

Hypostomus velhochico Zawadzki, Oyakawa & Britski 2017 named for its distribution in the rio São Francisco basin of Minas Gerais and Bahia, Brazil, “tenderly” called by locals as “Velho Chico” (Old Chico)

Hypostomus velhomonge Lustosa-Costa, Ramos, Zawadzki & Lima 2022 named for the rio Parnaíba, Brazil (in the basin of which this catfish occurs), commonly known as “Velho Monge” (Old Monk), supposedly referring to its appearance at the confluence of the Canindé and Parnaíba rivers, which forms a landscape that, in profile, resembles the silhouette of a monk and whose foam suggests its long beard

Hypostomus ventromaculatus Boeseman 1968 ventro-, from venter (L.), belly, or ventralis (L.), of the belly; maculatus (L.), spotted, referring to belly wholly covered with rather large and distinct spots

Hypostomus vermicularis (Eigenmann & Eigenmann 1888) Latin for worm-like (i.e., vermiculate), referring to spots on head “sometimes confluent into vermiculating lines” (per Eigenmann & Eigenmann, 1890)

Hypostomus waiampi Hollanda Carvalho & Weber 2005 named for Waiampi, an Amerindian ethnic group from northeastern Brazil, presently established in an Indian reserve with the same name, western Cupixi River Basin, Amapâ, Brazil, where it appears to be endemic

Hypostomus watwata Hancock 1828 Creole name (also spelled watawata) for this species in Guyana

Hypostomus weberi Carvalho, Lima & Zawadzki 2010 in honor of Claude Weber, Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Génève, for his contributions to the knowledge of the genus Hypostomus

Hypostomus wilsoni (Eigenmann 1918) in honor of businessman Charles Wilson (Indianapolis, Indiana, USA), who helped finance Eigenmann’s trip to Brazil and collected many specimens himself, including holotype of this species

Hypostomus wuchereri (Günther 1864) in honor of Brazilian physician Otto Edward Henry Wucherer (1820–1873), whose collection supplied holotypes of this and several other species from Bahia, Brazil

Hypostomus yaku Martins, Langeani & Zawadzki 2014 from the Tupí-Guaraní language, dialect Mbyá, y (water) and raku (hot or warm), referring to name of the rio Quente (=hot), a warm-water river (~34˚C) in Goiás, Brazil, only known area of occurrence

Isorineloricaria Isbrücker 1980 ísos (Gr. ἴσος), equal to or the same as (Isbrücker says “like”), referring to how its general body shape, prominent odontodes, and secondary sexual dimorphism “strikingly remind” one of several species of Rineloricaria (Loricariinae)

Isorineloricaria acuarius Ray & Armbruster 2016 Latin for needle maker, referring to the numerous hypertrophied odontodes found on breeding males, “which can make study of these fishes difficult”

Isorineloricaria spinosissima (Steindachner 1880) Latin for very spiny, referring to strong spines covering head and body of adult males

Isorineloricaria tenuicauda (Steindachner 1878) tenuis (L.), thin or slender; cauda (L.), tail, referring to thinner caudal peduncle compared with S. emarginata

Isorineloricaria villarsi (Lütken 1874) in honor of physician-zoologist Carron de Villars, who provided holotype

Lasiancistrus Regan 1904 lásios (Gr. λάσιος), shaggy or bearded, proposed as a subgenus of Ancistrus that sometimes has short bristles on sides of snout

Lasiancistrus caucanus Eigenmann 1912 –anus (L.), belonging to: Valle del Cauca, Colombia, where Cartago (type locality) is situated

Lasiancistrus guacharote (Valenciennes 1840) per Valenciennes, local name for this catfish on Puerto Rico, but this catfish does not occur there (possibly its name in the Lake Maracaibo basin of Venezuela, its actual type locality)

Lasiancistrus heteracanthus (Günther 1869) héteros (Gr. ἕτερος), different; acanthus, from ákantha (Gr. ἄκανθα), thorn, referring to two kinds of spines on interoperculum: a group of ~12 slender but stiff and slightly hooked spines surrounded by a ring of long setiform spines

Lasiancistrus mayoloi (Eigenmann 1912) in honor of J. A. Mayolo, Buenaventura, Colombia, for granting “special favors” through the steamship company he represented, and for “letters of introduction and other courtesies”

Lasiancistrus saetiger Armbruster 2005 seta or saeta (L.), hair or bristle; –iger (L.), to have or bear, referring to whisker-like odontodes in all species of the genus

Lasiancistrus schomburgkii (Günther 1864) in honor of German explorer Robert Hermann Schomburgk (1804–1865), who presented holotype to the British Museum

Lasiancistrus tentaculatus Armbruster 2005 –atus (L.), provided with: tentacule (L.), feeler, i.e., small tentacle, referring to tentacules along snout in nuptial males

Lasiancistrus volcanensis Dahl 1941 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Río Volcán near its junction to Río San Bartolomé, Antióquia Department, Colombia, type locality

Lasiancistrus wiwa Poveda-Cuellar, Conde-Saldaña, Villa-Navarro, Lujan & Santos 2023 named for the Wiwa, indigenous peoples who live in what is now La Guajira Department, Colombia (where this catfish occurs) and northern Cesar Department (their population numbers <14,000 at time of description)

Leporacanthicus Isbrücker & Nijssen 1989 leporis, genitive singular of lepis (L.), hare or rabbit, referring to long and firm premaxillary teeth, i.e., a hare-like Acanthicus

Leporacanthicus galaxias Isbrücker & Nijssen 1989 galaxías (Gr. γαλαξίας), Milky Way, referring to its milky white spots

Leporacanthicus heterodon Isbrücker & Nijssen 1989 héteros (Gr. ἕτερος), different; odon, Latinized and grammatically adjusted from the Greek nominative ὀδούς (odoús), tooth, referring to its unique hare- or rabbit-like teeth

Leporacanthicus joselimai Isbrücker & Nijssen 1989 in honor of Brazilian ichthyologist José Lima de Figueiredo (b. 1943), Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, who drew the first author’s attention to the “peculiar” (translation) genera now known as Leporacanthicus and Hopliancistrus

Leporacanthicus triactis Isbrücker, Nijssen & Nico 1992 tri– (L.), three; aktís (Gr. ἀκτίς), ray, unique among congeners in having three (vs. four) branched anal-fin rays

Leptoancistrus Meek & Hildebrand 1916 leptós (Gr. λεπτός), thin or slender, allusion not explained, perhaps referring to “anteriorly low” body of L. canensis; ancistrus, a root name for many hypostomine genera that have clusters of enlarged evertible cheek odontodes, from ágkistron (Gr. ἄγκιστρον), fishhook or hook of a spindle

Leptoancistrus canensis (Meek & Hildebrand 1913) –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Río Cana, Cana, Darien, Panama, type locality

Leptoancistrus cordobensis Dahl 1964 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Córdoba Department, Colombia, where Río Sinú (type locality) is situated

Lithoxancistrus Isbrücker, Nijssen & Cala 1988 a combination of two related genera, Lithoxus and Ancistrus

Lithoxancistrus orinoco Isbrücker, Nijssen & Cala 1988 named for the Río Orinoco, Colombia, type locality

Lithoxancistrus yekuana (Lujan, Armbruster & Sabaj Pérez 2007 named for the Ye-kuana, indigenous people inhabiting the upper Río Ventauri and other areas of southern Venezuela (where this catfish occurs) and northern Brazil, whose “generous cooperation” made the authors’ research possible

Lithoxus Eigenmann 1910 líthos (Gr. λῐ́θος), stone, referring to stone-like appearance as described for L. lithoides; –oxus, perhaps from oxýs (Gr. ὀξύς), sharp, referring to dense covering of spines on outer margins of pectoral fins of males (i.e., a sharp stone) [genus dates to 1910 but type species dates to 1912]

Lithoxus lithoides Eigenmann 1912 Neo-Latin from eī́dos (Gr. εἶδος), form or shape: líthos (Gr. λῐ́θος), stone, i.e., stone-like; “It is flat and clings to the rock, which it greatly resembles”

Megalancistrus Isbrücker 1980 mégas (Gr. μέγας), large or great, referring to the large size (up to 53 cm TL in M. parananus) of the known species; Ancistrus, type genus of tribe Ancistrini

Megalancistrus barrae (Steindachner 1910) of Barra, Brazil, near type locality (rio São Francisco)

Megalancistrus parananus (Peters 1881) –anus (L.), belonging to: Río Paraná at La Paz, Entre-Ríos, Argentina, type locality

Neblinichthys Ferraris, Isbrücker & Nijssen 1986 Neblina, name of base camp on Río Mawarinuma tributary, Venezuela, type locality of N. pilosus; ichthýs (Gr. ἰχθύς), fish

Neblinichthys brevibracchium Taphorn, Armbruster, López-Fernández & Bernard 2010 brevis (L.), short; bracchium (L.), forearm, referring to relatively short pectoral spines present in the genus

Neblinichthys echinasus Taphorn, Armbruster, López-Fernández & Bernard 2010 echinus (L.), sea-urchin; nasus (L.), nose, referring to extremely hypertrophied odontodes along entire edge of snout of males

Neblinichthys peniculatus Armbruster & Taphorn 2013 adjectival form of peniculus (L.), brush, referring to brush-like odontodes on snout

Neblinichthys pilosus Ferraris, Isbrücker & Nijssen 1986 Latin for hairy, referring to the “hair-styled” (quotes in original) bristles of mature males

Neblinichthys roraima Provenzano R., Lasso A. & Ponte 1995 named for Monte Roraima, type locality, the highest (2,800 m) tepui (table-top mountain or mesa) of the Gran Sabana area, Estado Bolívar, Venezuela

Neblinichthys yaravi (Steindachner 1915) local name for this catfish along the Río Coquenan in Venezuela

Panaqolus Isbrücker & Schraml 2001 diminutive of Panaque, i.e., small Panaque, referring to their smaller size (<150 mm SL vs. up to 490 mm SL)

Subgenus Panaqolus

Panaqolus changae (Chockley & Armbruster 2002) in honor of the late Fonchii Chang (1963–1999), Peruvian ichthyologist of Chinese and Japanese ancestry, Museo de Historia Natural (Lima, Peru), for her contributions to the study of loricariids and her specific interest in this species (she died, along with her motorista, in a boat accident near Lake Rimachi, Peru; she was wearing rubber boots, which filled with water and anchored her to the bottom, where she was shocked by an electric eel, knocked unconscious and drowned)

Panaqolus claustellifer Tan, Souza & Armbruster 2016 claustellum (L.), keyhole; -ifer, from fero (L.), to have or bear, referring to dark-brown lines on snout surrounding a keyhole-like shape of light-brown base coloration

Panaqolus gnomus (Schaefer & Stewart 1993) Neo-Latin for gnome, a diminutive fabled being or dwarf, referring to small adult size (up to 70.8 mm) and garish banded coloration

Panaqolus purusiensis (La Monte 1935) –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Rio Purus, Brazil, type locality

Panaqolus tankei Cramer & Sousa 2016 in honor of German aquarist Andreas Tanke, for his dedication to the genus Panaqolus (he probably was the first to reproduce this species in captivity), and for his successful efforts to improve communications between aquarists and scientists “in an era of less and less money for research and an ever accelerating destruction of natural habitats”

Panaqolus (subgenus Panafilus) Lujan, Cramer, Covain, Fisch-Muller & López-Fernández 2017 combination of Panaqolus, nominate genus, and filum (L.), filament or fiber, referring to elongated unbranched principal caudal-fin rays in all members of this subgenus

Panaqolus albivermis Lujan, Steele & Velasquez 2013 albus (L.), white; vermis (L.), worm, referring to its “variable but distinctive” white-to-yellow markings, or vermiculations

Panaqolus albomaculatus (Kanazawa 1958) albo-, from albus (L.), white; maculatus (L.), spotted, referring to small, rounded, light-colored spots on head, body and fins

Panaqolus nix Cramer & Rapp Py-Daniel 2015 Latin for snow, referring to dots that look like falling snowflakes on dark individuals, while pale individuals look as if their whole body is covered by snow

Panaqolus nocturnus (Schaefer & Stewart 1993) Latin for of the night, referring to dark, dusky coloration of dorsal and paired fins, and to its nocturnal habits

Panaqolus orcesi Provenzano, Barriga-Salazar & Stewart 2024 in honor of Ecuadorian ichthyologist Gustavo Orces (1903–1999), for his “extensive” contributions to the knowledge vertebrate biodiversity in Ecuador

Panaqolus pantostiktos Provenzano, Barriga-Salazar & Stewart 2024 pantós (Gr. παντός), genitive of pā́s (πᾶς), all or everywhere; stiktós (Gr. στικτός), spotted, i.e., spotted all over, referring to head, body and fins covered with light dots on a black or dark-brown background

Panaqolus (subgenus Panaqoco) Lujan, Cramer, Covain, Fisch-Muller & López-Fernández 2017 combination of Panaqolus, nominate genus, and Río Orinoco drainage, Venezuela and Colombia, where P. maccus occurs

Panaqolus maccus (Schaefer & Stewart 1993) Latin for clown or buffoon, referring to “Clown Plecostomus” name widely used by aquarists, referring to its striped color pattern

Panaqolus (subgenus Incertae sedis)

Panaqolus dentex (Günther 1868) from dens (L.), tooth, referring to its “comparatively large” teeth

Panaque Eigenmann & Eigenmann 1889 local name for P. nigrolineatus in Venezuela

Panaque armbrusteri Lujan, Hidalgo & Stewart 2010 in honor of Jonathan W. Armbruster (b. 1969), Curator of Fishes, Auburn University Museum (Alabama, USA), for his many contributions to ichthyology in general, and to our understanding of the Loricariidae in particular

Panaque bathyphilus Lujan & Chamon 2008 deep-loving, from bathýs (Gr. βαθύς), deep, and phílos (Gr. φίλος), friend or fond of, referring to its deep-river-channel habitat

Panaque cochliodon (Steindachner 1879) cochli, from cochlearium (L.), a small Roman spoon with a long tapering handle; odon, Latinized and grammatically adjusted from the Greek nominative ὀδούς (odoús), tooth, referring to spoon-shaped dentary and premaxillary tooth cusps

Panaque nigrolineatus (Peters 1877) nigro-, from niger (L.), dark or black; lineatus (L.), lined, referring to dark-brown to black wavy longitudinal stripes on body

Panaque nigrolineatus laurafabianae Ortega-Lara & Lujan 2020 in honor of Laura Fabiana Ortega Lucumi, only daughter of senior author, for the “time with her father that she has lost to ichthyological research and for her understanding of the importance of this work”

Panaque schaeferi Lujan, Hidalgo & Stewart 2010 in honor of Scott A. Schaefer, American Museum of Natural History and ichthyological editor of Copeia, for many contributions to ichthyology in general, and to our understanding of the Loricarioidea in particular

Panaque suttonorum Schultz 1944 –orum (L.), commemorative suffix, plural: in honor of Dr. (1894-1950) and Mrs. Fredrick A. Sutton, who were “very kind” to Schultz when he stayed at the camp of the Lago Petroleum Corporation in Maracaibo, Venezuela [originally spelled suttoni; emended speling is in prevailing usage]

Panaque titan Lujan, Hidalgo & Stewart 2010 titán (Gr. τιτάν), one of the Titans (giant deities in Greek mythology), representing brute force and large size, referring to adult body size (>390 mm SL)

Paralithoxus Boeseman 1982 para– (Gr. παρά), near, proposed as a subgenus of Lithoxus

Paralithoxus boujardi (Muller & Isbrücker 1993) in honor of Thierry Boujard (b. 1959), Laboratoire d’Hydrobiologie de Guyane (INRA), who at the time had been studying the fishes of Guyana for six years [authorial note: Muller later seen as S. Fisch-Muller]

Paralithoxus bovallii (Regan 1906) in honor of Swedish biologist and archaeologist Carl Bovallius (1849–1907), who collected holotype

Paralithoxus jariensis (Silva, Covain, Oliveira & Roxo 2017) –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: rio Jari, Amapá State, Brazil, type locality

Paralithoxus mocidade Rapp-Py-Daniel, Oliveira, Bastos, Ito, Zuanon & Briglia-Ferreira 2019 named for Serra da Mocidade National Park, Roraima State, Brazil, type locality

Paralithoxus pallidimaculatus (Boeseman 1982) pallidus (L.), pale; maculatus (L.), spotted, referring to “almost white” spots on head, back and caudal peduncle

Paralithoxus planquettei (Boeseman 1982) in honor of Paul Planquette (1940–1996), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (Kourou, French Guiana), who collected type

Paralithoxus raso (Silva, Covain, Oliveira & Roxo 2017) named for the type locality, Balneário Raso, a tributary of the rio Amapá, Amapá State, Brazil

Paralithoxus stocki (Nijssen & Isbrücker 1990) in honor of Dutch carcinologist Jan H. Stock (1931–1997), “on occasion of his retirement, with remembrance of and gratitude for his energetic and enthusiastic activities as a teacher and colleague”

Paralithoxus surinamensis (Boeseman 1982) –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: upper Suriname River drainage, where type locality (Gran Rio) is situated

Parancistrus Bleeker 1862 para– (Gr. παρά), near, presumably referring to similarity to and/or close relationship with Ancistrus

Parancistrus aurantiacus (Castelnau 1855) Latin for orange-colored, referring to its orange-yellow body coloration

Parancistrus nudiventris Rapp Py-Daniel & Zuanon 2005 nudus (L.), bare or naked; ventris, genitive of venter (L.), belly, referring to naked (i.e., non-plated) abdomen, compared with plated abdomen of P. aurantiacus

Paulasquama Armbruster & Taphorn 2011 paulus (L.), small; squama (L.), scale, referring to small plates located in dorsal series just below dorsal fin

Paulasquama callis Armbruster & Taphorn 2011 Latin for a stony, uneven, narrow footway, referring to cobblestone-like plates along narrow mesethmoid with naked areas to either side

Peckoltia Miranda Ribeiro 1912 –ia (L. suffix), belonging to: German botanist and pharmacist Gustavo Peckolt (1861–1923), who was born in Brazil, became a member of the Natural History Commission of Rondon, and published important books about Brazilian plants in the late 1800s with his father Theodor

Peckoltia braueri (Eigenmann 1912) in honor of German zoologist August Brauer (1863–1917), Berlin Zoological Museum, for the loan of type specimens

Peckoltia brevis (La Monte 1935) Latin for short, presumably referring to deeper (and therefore shorter) body compared with other known Hemiancistrus (original genus) except H. megacephalus

Peckoltia caenosa Armbruster 2008 Latin for muddy or dirty, referring to its muddy coloration and preference for muddy habitats

Peckoltia capitulata Fisch-Muller & Covain 2012 Latin for having or ending in a small head, referring to shorter head length compared with most congeners

Peckoltia cavatica Armbruster & Werneke 2005 Latin for born or living in caves, referring to holes in lateritic rocks where most specimens were captured, and where it likely breeds

Peckoltia compta de Oliveira, Zuanon, Rapp Py-Daniel & Rocha 2010 ornamented or adorned, referring to its “bold” striped and spotted color pattern

Peckoltia ephippiata Armbruster, Werneke & Tan 2015 Latin for saddled, referring to four saddle-like markings on body

Peckoltia furcata (Fowler 1940) Latin for forked, referring to its “very deeply forked” tail

Peckoltia greedoi Armbruster, Werneke & Tan 2015 in honor of Greedo of Rodia, a bounty hunter killed by Han Solo in Chalmun’s Spaceport Cantina in the 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, with whom this species shares a “remarkable resemblance” (specifically, the large, dark eyes and puckered lips)

Peckoltia lineola Armbruster 2008 diminutive of linea (L.), line, referring to short lines on the compound pterotic

Peckoltia lujani Armbruster, Werneke & Tan 2015 in honor of Armbruster’s former graduate student Nathan K. Lujan (b. 1975), whose expeditions to “some of the most remote regions of South America” have obtained important specimens for the study of loricariid systematics specifically and South American fish systematics and ecology in general,” giving Armbruster “more taxonomic work in the last decade than he had thought possible”; Lujan also collected the best specimens known of this species

Peckoltia multispinis (Holly 1929) multi– (L.), many; spinis, from spina (L.), thorn, referring to 39 hooked, curved spines on interoperculum

Peckoltia oligospila (Günther 1864) scantily-spotted, from olígos (Gr. ὀλίγος), few or scanty, and spílos (Gr. σπίλος), spot, presumably referring to “only one series” of round, black spots on each interradial space of dorsal fin

Peckoltia otali Fisch-Muller & Covain 2012 Wayana Amerindian word meaning secret, referring to its coloration, similar to its biotope, making it difficult to observe

Peckoltia pankimpuju (Lujan & Chamon 2008) pankim, beautiful, and puju, white, in the language of the Aguaruna (Awajun) people of northern Peru, referring to its nearly white body

Peckoltia relictum (Lujan, Armbruster & Rengifo 2011) from relictus, Latin for abandoned, referring to its apparently relictual biogeographic distribution [spelled as an adjective to agree with the neuter Etsaputu, its original genus, but name is said to be a noun in apposition]

Peckoltia sabaji Armbruster 2003 in honor of Mark Sabaj Perez (b. 1969), Collection Manager, Ichthyology, Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, for his “tremendous” help in collecting specimens throughout South America, and because he collected the first live specimen of this species that Armbruster ever saw (pronounced sah-bay’-i)

Peckoltia simulata Fisch-Muller & Covain 2012 Latin for counterfeit, referring to similarity with P. oligopsila

Peckoltia vermiculata (Steindachner 1908) Latin for vermiculate (with wavy lines and marks), described as a variety of P. vittata with “wavy purple lines” (translation), or vermiculations, on the head

Peckoltia vittata (Steindachner 1881) Latin for banded, referring to five dark-brown, nearly vertical bands crossing body and/or two similar bands on all fins except anal

Peckoltia wernekei Armbruster & Lujan 2016 in honor of David C. Werneke, for his “diligence, camaraderie and humor” during three expeditions to the upper Orinoco Basin, and for his long service as Collection Manager of Fishes at the Auburn University Museum (Alabama, USA)

Peckoltichthys Miranda Ribeiro 1917 named for German botanist and pharmacist Gustavo Peckolt (1861–1923), who was born in Brazil, became a member of the Natural History Commission of Rondon, and published important books about Brazilian plants in the late 1800s with his father Theodor; ichthýs (Gr. ἰχθύς), fish [Miranda Ribeiro stated in 1920 that he proposed this name as a replacement for Peckoltia, preoccupied in plants; while intra-kingdom homonyms are discouraged, they are not prohibited]

Peckoltichthys bachi (Boulenger 1898) in honor of José Bach, a physician working on the Rio Juruá of Brazil in the late 1800s, who collected holotype

Pseudacanthicus Bleeker 1862 pseudo-, from pseúdēs (Gr. ψεύδης), false, i.e., although this genus may superficially resemble Acanthicus, such an appearance is false

Pseudacanthicus fordii (Günther 1868) in honor of “Mr. Ford,” probably George Henry Ford (1809–1876), who illustrated specimens (including fishes) for the British Museum (Natural History) [in 1861, Günther named a snake after Ford, Epicrates fordii, praising his “truly artistical drawings”]

Pseudacanthicus histrix (Valenciennes 1840) alternate spelling of hýstrix (Gr. ὕστριξ) and hystrix (L.), porcupine, referring to “spiny hairs” (translation) that line the body

Pseudacanthicus leopardus (Fowler 1914) Latin for leopard, referring to its leopard-like spots

Pseudacanthicus major Chamon & Costa e Silva 2018 Latin for great or greater, referring to its large size (up to 60 cm SL) compared with congeners

Pseudacanthicus nyktos Lopes, Sousa & Chamon 2024 nyktós (Gr. νυκτός), genitive of nýx (νύξ), night, referring to its dark color compared with congeners species, and to the deep habitats where they are found, where there is no light

Pseudacanthicus pirarara Chamon & Sousa 2017 named for pirarara, Brazilian common name of the Redtail Catfish Phractocephalus hemioliopterus (Pimelodidae), which was incorporated by local fishermen in the common name of this species, assacu-pirarara, due to its reddish fins

Pseudacanthicus pitanga Chamon 2015 Tupí-Guaraní word for red, referring to the color of its fins

Pseudacanthicus serratus (Valenciennes 1840) Latin for toothed like a saw, referring to short, serrate spines covering head, body and fins

Pseudacanthicus spinosus (Castelnau 1855) Latin for thorny, referring to white spines on body, small spines on head, and/or spiny rayed fins

Pseudancistrus Bleeker 1862 pseudo-, from pseúdēs (Gr. ψεύδης), false, i.e., although this genus may superficially resemble Ancistrus, such an appearance is false

Pseudancistrus asurini Silva, Roxo & Oliveira 2015 named for the Asurini indigenous people who inhabit the right margin and median portions of rio Xingu, close to the municipality of Altamira (Pará, Brazil), where this catfish occurs

Pseudancistrus barbatus (Valenciennes 1840) Latin for bearded, referring to bristles on side of snout, longer on males, “like a badly made beard” (translation)

Pseudancistrus coquenani (Steindachner 1915) of the Río Coquenan, Venezuela, type locality

Pseudancistrus corantijniensis De Chambrier & Montoya-Burgos 2008 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Corantijn River, Suriname, where it is endemic

Pseudancistrus depressus (Günther 1868) Latin for pressed down, referring to head and trunk, “much depressed and flattened”

Pseudancistrus genisetiger Fowler 1941 génys (Gr. γένυς), jaw (usually the cheek or lower jaw in ichthyology); seta or saeta (L.), hair or bristle; –iger (L.), to have or bear, referring to prominent bristles on interopercle and lower margin of head

Pseudancistrus guentheri (Regan 1904) in honor of German-born British ichthyologist-herpetologist Albert Günther (1830–1914), who described several loricariid species in his 1864 catalog of catfishes in the British Museum (Natural History)

Pseudancistrus kayabi Silva, Roxo & Oliveira 2015 named for the Kayabi indigenous people who inhabited the region of the rivers Arinos, dos Peixes and Teles Pires (Mato Grosso, Brazil), where this catfish occurs

Pseudancistrus kwinti Willink, Mol & Chernoff 2010 named for the Kwinti people who live along the Coppename River, Suriname, and traditionally fish in the area where this catfish is found

Pseudancistrus megacephalus (Günther 1868) big-headed, from mégas (Gr. μέγας), large or great, and kephalḗ (Gr. κεφαλή), head its length >⅓ of SL

Pseudancistrus nigrescens Eigenmann 1912 Latin for blackish, referring to its nearly uniform “dark slaty” coloration

Pseudancistrus papariae Fowler 1941 of Lago Papary, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, type locality

Pseudancistrus pectegenitor Lujan, Armbruster & Sabaj Pérez 2007 pecten, quill, referring to hypertrophied odontodes on snout, pectoral spine and evertible cheek plates; genitor, father, referring to fact that one presumably adult male was collected while caring for a large brood of young

Pseudancistrus reus Armbruster & Taphorn 2008 Latin for one who is accused or arraigned like a defendant, prisoner, criminal, or culprit, referring to barred pattern that looks like the stripes of the stereotypical prisoner’s uniform

Pseudancistrus sidereus Armbruster 2004 Latin for starry, referring to white-to-gold spots on black background, which look like stars

Pseudancistrus zawadzkii Silva, Roxo, Britzke & Oliveira 2014 in honor of Cláudio Henrique Zawadzki, Universidade Estadual de Maringá (Paraná, Brazil), for his dedication and “remarkable” contributions to the study of loricariid fishes

Pseudolithoxus Isbrücker & Werner 2001 pseudo-, from pseúdēs (Gr. ψεύδης), false, i.e., although this genus may superficially resemble Lithoxus, such an appearance is false

Pseudolithoxus anthrax (Armbruster & Provenzano 2000) ánthrax (Gr. ἄνθραξ), coal, referring to its dark, coal-like color

Pseudolithoxus dumus (Armbruster & Provenzano 2000) Latin for thorn-bush, referring to well-developed odontodes on pectoral-fin spines and snout

Pseudolithoxus kelsorum Lujan & Birindelli 2011 –orum (L.), commemorative suffix, plural: in honor of George (1929–2015) and Carolyn (1934–2008) Kelso, whose “generous” contribution to Texas A&M University and to the Winemiller Aquatic Ecology Lab facilitated important ichthyological discoveries, including this species (Winemiller is the Kelsos’ son-in-law)

Pseudolithoxus kinja Bifi, de Oliveira, Rapp Py-Daniel & Collins 2018 named for the Kinja, meaning “true people,” how the Waimiri-Atroari indigenous people refer to themselves, “brave people who survived three attempts of genocide in the last century, and survive and thrive today in their protected area” surrounding the rio Uatumã (where this catfish occurs) and part of the rio Negro in the states of Amazonas and Roraima, Brazil

Pseudolithoxus nicoi (Armbruster & Provenzano 2000) in honor of American ichthyologist Leo G. Nico, U.S. Geological Survey, who collected most of the known specimens

Pseudolithoxus tigris (Armbruster & Provenzano 2000) Latin for tiger, referring to its tiger-like markings

Pseudoqolus Lujan, Cramer, Covain, Fisch-Muller & López-Fernández 2017 pseudo-, from pseúdēs (Gr. ψεύδης), false, i.e., although this genus may superficially resemble Panaqolus, such an appearance is false

Pseudoqolus koko (Fisch-Muller & Covain 2012) Wayana Amerindian name meaning night, referring to its dark coloration, and alluding to the similarly colored and named Panaqolus nocturnus

Pterygoplichthys Gill 1858 pterygion, dimunitive of ptéryx (πτέρυξ), fin; opli-, from hóplon (Gr. ὅπλον), shield or armor (but here meaning armed), referring to sail-like dorsal fin with single large spine; ichthýs (Gr. ἰχθύς), fish

Pterygoplichthys ambrosettii (Holmberg 1893) in honor of Holmberg’s good friend Juan Bautista Ambrosetti (1865–1917), Director, Zoological Division of Museo Provincial de Paraná, for his field work in Argentina (collections and observations)

Pterygoplichthys chrysostiktos (Birindelli, Zanata & Lima 2007) chrysós (Gr. χρυσός), gold or golden; stiktós (Gr. στικτός), marked or spotted, referring to bright yellow spots on living specimens

Pterygoplichthys disjunctivus (Weber 1991) Latin for placed in opposition or opposed to each other (but here meaning lacking connection), describing how the former “zoogeographical neighbourhood” between P. pardalis (Amazonas) and P. anisitsi (Paraguay) was interrupted by the “arrival” of P. disjunctivus (Madeira)

Pterygoplichthys etentaculatus (Spix & Agassiz 1829) e– (L.) prefix, not or without; tentaculatus (L.), with feelers (i.e., small tentacles), referring to lack of barbels (“cirrho nullo”)

Pterygoplichthys gibbiceps (Kner 1854) gibbus, Latin for hump or humpback; –ceps (Neo-Latin), headed, referring to large pear-shaped prominence on occiput

Pterygoplichthys joselimaianus (Weber 1991) –anus (L.), belonging to: in honor of Brazilian ichthyologist José Lima de Figueiredo (b. 1943), Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, for his generous support and many observations on the species covered in Weber’s paper

Pterygoplichthys lituratus (Kner 1854) Latin for smeared, erased or blotted, probably referring to dark coloration with light spots or vermiculations on head, body and fins

Pterygoplichthys multiradiatus (Hancock 1828) multi- (L.), many; radiatus (L.), rayed, referring to more dorsal fin rays (14) compared to Hypstomus watwata (8), described in the same paper

Pterygoplichthys pardalis (Castelnau 1855) párdalis (Gr. πάρδαλις), leopard, referring to round leopard-like spots or points of dark brown on a light-yellow background

Pterygoplichthys parnaibae (Weber 1991) of the rio Parnaíba basin, Brazil, where it is endemic

Pterygoplichthys punctatus (Kner 1854) Latin for spotted, referring to round blackish spots all over fins and body

Pterygoplichthys scrophus (Cope 1874) etymology not explained, possibly from scrofa (L), a breeding sow, perhaps referring to its “much more robust” appearance compared with Liposarcus jeanesianus (=Pterygoplichthys pardalis)

Pterygoplichthys undecimalis (Steindachner 1878) Latin for eleven, referring to number of dorsal-fin rays (I, 10) compared to the closely related Chaetostomus duodecimalis (=P. etentaculatus), which has 12 (I, 11)

Pterygoplichthys weberi Armbruster & Page 2006 in honor of Claude Weber, Muséum d’histoire naturelle (Geneva), for his “fine work” on Pterygoplichthys and his contributions to loricariid systematics

Pterygoplichthys xinguensis (Weber 1991) –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: rio Xingú basin, Brazil, where it is endemic

Pterygoplichthys zuliaensis Weber 1991 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Zulia, Venezuela, where Río Santa Ana, type locality, is situated

Scobinancistrus Isbrücker & Nijssen 1989 scobina (L.), rasp, referring to their “peculiar” (translation) long and narrow spoon-shaped teeth (they are carnivorous and do not use their teeth to rasp wood like Panaque and other closely related genera); Ancistrus, type genus of tribe Ancistrini

Scobinancistrus aureatus Burgess 1994 Latin for adorned with gold, referring to bright yellow or golden fin borders and spots all over body and fins

Scobinancistrus pariolispos Isbrücker & Nijssen 1989 pario-, from pareiá (Gr. παρειά), cheek; líspos (Gr. λíσπος), smooth, referring to weakly developed odontodes in males (hence, having smooth rather than spiny cheeks)

Scobinancistrus raonii Chaves, Oliveira, Gonçalves, Sousa & Rapp Py-Daniel 2023 in honor of the Cacique (tribal chieftain) Raoni Metuktire (b. 1932) of the Kayapó people; he is “one of the most active indigenous leaders in the struggle to preserve the Amazon rainforest and indigenous peoples, being a solid reference for the fight for the conservation of the Xingu River basin for more than 40 years”

Soromonichthys Lujan & Armbruster 2011 named for Soromoni Creek, Amazonas State, Venezuela, type locality of S. stearleyi; ichthýs (Gr. ἰχθύς), fish

Soromonichthys stearleyi Lujan & Armbruster 2011 in honor of Ralph Stearley, Professor of Geology at Calvin College (Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA) since 1992, “whose patient introductory tutelage in fish osteology set the first author on his career”

Spectracanthicus Nijssen & Isbrücker 1987 spectrum, appearance; Acanthicus, “a genus of Loricariidae” (translation), allusion not explained, possibly referring to its Acanthicus-like appearance

Spectracanthicus immaculatus Chamon & Rapp Py-Daniel 2014 im-, from in (L.), not; maculatus (L.), spotted, referring to its evenly dark gray to dark brown coloration, lacking dots or spots

Spectracanthicus javae Chamon, Pereira, Mendonça & Akama 2018 named for the Javaé people, an indigenous branch of the Karajá people who live along the rio Javaés (Tocantins, Brazil), type locality

Spectracanthicus murinus Nijssen & Isbrücker 1987 Latin for mouse-gray, referring to its coloration

Spectracanthicus punctatissimus (Steindachner 1881) Latin for very spotted, referring to white or light-blue dots on head, body and fins

Spectracanthicus tocantinensis Chamon & Rapp Py-Daniel 2014 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: rio Tocantins, Pará, Brazil, type locality

Spectracanthicus zuanoni Chamon & Rapp Py-Daniel 2014 in honor of Jansen Zuanon, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, for his contribution to the knowledge of Neotropical ichthyology; also, he was the first ichthyologist to collect and identify this species as new

Transancistrus Lujan, Meza-Vargas & Barriga-Salazar 2015 trans (L.), over or beyond, referring to distribution of genus across rivers draining Pacific slope of the Andes Mountains in Ecuador; ancistrus, a root name for many hypostomine genera that have clusters of enlarged evertible cheek odontodes, from ágkistron (Gr. ἄγκιστρον), fishhook or hook of a spindle

Transancistrus aequinoctialis (Pellegrin 1909) Latin for equinoctial (but here apparently meaning equatorial), referring to its type locality just 13’ south of the equator in Ecuador

Transancistrus santarosensis (Tan & Armbruster 2012) –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Río Santa Rosa, near the southern coast of Ecuador, type locality

Yaluwak Lujan & Armbruster 2019 Patamona Amerindian word for this species (and used generally for larger loricariids); pronunciation of the “l” is a guttural “ir” sound

Yaluwak primus Lujan, Armbruster & Werneke 2019 Latin for first, foremost, chief or principal, referring to large body size and the fact that it retains the evertible cheek odontodes likely inherited from the common ancestor of the Yaluwak/Corymbophanes clade; name was also inspired by the authors’ “indefatigable” Patamona guide Primus Peters, who led the collection effort for this species and assisted in innumerable other ways during their 2016 expedition to the upper Ireng River of Guyana