Description of a new Lithoxus (Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from the Guayana Highlands with a discussion of Guiana Shield biogeography

Abstract

Lithoxus jantjae, new species, is described from above Tencua Falls in headwaters of the Ventuari River, a white- to clearwater river flowing west from the Maigualida and Parima mountains in the Guayana Highlands of southern Venezuela. Lithoxus jantjae represents a nearly 600 km westward range expansion for a genus historically known only from Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and Brazil. Lithoxus jantjae shares with other species of Lithoxus a dorsoventrally depressed body and a large, papilose oral disk with small toothcups and few teeth. It can be distinguished from congeners by a unique combination of characters including 12 branched caudal-fin rays, medial premaxillary tooth cusps enlarged, and a convex posterior margin of the adipose-fin membrane. With the discovery of L. jantjae, Lithoxus becomes the most recent example of a growing list of rheophilic loricariid genera with disjunct distributions on east and west sides of the Guayana Highlands. A biogeographic hypothesis relying on the existence of a proto-Berbice River uniting the southern Guayana Highlands with rivers of the central Guiana Shield is advanced to partially explain the modern distribution of these species. Copyright © 2007 Sociedade Brasileira de Ictiologia.