Changes in Nannoptopoma and Hypoptopoma

[Mike_Noren]

Nannoptopoma sternoptychum

is now Hypoptopoma sternoptychum.

Nannoptopoma spectabilis

is now Hypoptopoma spectabile.

New species Hypoptopoma baileyi, H. brevirostrum, H. muzuspi, H. bianale, H. elongatum, H. machadoi, are missing in the Cat-eLog.

Reference:
Aquino, A. E. & S. A. Schaefer. 2010. Systematics of the genus Hypoptopoma Günther, 1868 (Siluriformes, Loricariidae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History No. 336: 1-110.

EDIT: On further reading there were no other described species in the genus Nannoptopoma, and it has been synonymized with Hypoptopoma.

[The.Dark.One]

EDIT: On further reading there were no other described species in the genus Nannoptopoma, and it has been synonymized with Hypoptopoma.

I've been meaning to post something about this since the paper was published.

[Mike_Noren]

I've been meaning to post something about this since the paper was published.

I had completely missed it and only found it due to the "Parotocinclus sp. Nanay Eanea" thread. The "Parotocinclus sp. Nanay Eanea" looked more like what I would have considered a Nannoptopoma than a Parotocinclus, but when I checked the real Nannoptopoma looked like Hypoptopoma, and then I found the article.
I suspect the Cat-eLog's "Nannoptopoma sp." and possibly "Parotocinclus sp. Nanay Eanea" belong to one or several undescribed genera.

[MatsP]

Seeing as my car won't start, I'll do this instead... (duff battery - hoping that it will recover by charging it, but I believe a visit to Halfords may be required).

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Mats

[MatsP]

Would you say that the undescribed Nannoptopoma species (

Nannoptopoma sp`peru_white`

and

Nannoptopoma sp`peru`

) can also be moved to Hypoptopoma?

I understand that this won't necessarily be a permanent placement, but I take it that it's no more wrong than keeping them in their current "no longer valid" genus?

--
Mats

[MatsP]

That didn't work quite as I expected. Had to fix the "rename species" (which I'd broken when I added some extra to make sure it we don't rename to something that already exists)...

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Mats

[MatsP]

I've now added the new species listed above, as well as checking that we have the other ones from fishbase's list of species.

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Mats

[MatsP]

Also, could someone come up with a "Hypoptopoma identification" entry - that is, how you tell Hypoptopoma from other genus in Loricariidae - and yes, I know there is one in the link above - but I'd like one that is slightly more plain English - I got about one sentence in and was already lost...

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Mats

[Acanthicus]

Could somebody please explain why Nannoptopoma has been synonymized (damn word....)? I tried to figure it out, but I couldn´t find a reason in the paper. It is quite old now, and not many people seem to understand the context.

Just by the way, I think that Hypoptopoma will be spliited up again, in at least 2 genera.

[The.Dark.One]

The paper isn't that old? It was published in 2010 and one of the authors was the describer of Nannoptopoma and an expert in Hypoptopomatinae.

Basically phylogenetic findings by the authors and others led to a decision not to split the two because although there were differences, they were closely related to a subset of Hypoptopoma species that didnt belong in the definition of Nannoptopoma, and they didnt feel there was enough evidence to describe another genus to house these species:

"In our more inclusive taxon sampling involving the species of both genera, we recovered the two species of Nannoptopoma nested within Hypoptopoma, most closely related to a subset of Hypoptopoma species. A similar finding was reported by Chiachio et al. (2008) in a
phylogenetic analysis of the Hypoptopomatinae and Neoplecostomatinae based on a molecular dataset. In their analysis, Oxyropsis and Acestridium clustered together and formed the sister group of Hypoptopoma + Nannoptopoma, the latter nested within the clade formed by the five species of Hypoptopma included in that analysis. The most conservative course of action that would retain the older generic name Hypoptopoma as monophyletic and valid would require synonymy of the genus Nannoptopoma with Hypoptopoma, and is clearly preferable to any alternative taxonomic rearrangement requiring the proliferation of new generic level
taxa. A sister-group relationship between the two former Nannoptopoma species
was supported in this analysis by four synapomorphies."

Nannoptopoma may be resurrected by someone in the future but this could just be down to opinion and whether they are a lumper or a splitter, or could be due to new phylogenetic evidence. We will have to see.

[Mike_Noren]

I don't see any reason to think this will not hold. Their morphological analysis agrees with an earlier molecular analysis that the two species in Nannoptopoma are within Hypoptopoma, and not basal but quite far inside - recognizing Nannoptopoma would require splitting Hypoptopoma in to at least four genera, which seems excessive for such a homogenous group.

On the subject of how to in simple terms recognize a Hypoptopoma, I would put it as that they're small(ish) loricariids which've got a stocky body with a wide, flattened, head with the eyes on the side of the head and a concave profile, with a normal (not extremely thin) tail.

At present it's unknown if the undescribed "Nannoptopoma" in the cat-elog belong in Hypoptopoma, or if they form a separate group outside Hypoptopoma.

[Jools]

Data submissions and Mats code fix now applied to the site. I agree the undescribed species should be moved into Hypoptopoma. Also, synonyms should be created - this change will fox a few people without that being available.

Jools

[MatsP]

I've now moved the existing Nannoptopoma species to Hypoptopoma. And for the described species, I added synonym of Nannoptopoma.

To make the clog-links work, I'd actually like to add synonyms on Nannoptopoma sp`peru` & sp`peru_white` as well.

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Mats

[Jools]

To make the clog-links work, I'd actually like to add synonyms on Nannoptopoma sp`peru` & sp`peru_white` as well.

Ah, that sets a bit of a dangerous precedent. I would suggest in cases like these we should be changing the clog links via manual edits or, at the very most, putting the old name in as a common name. E.G. White Peruvian `Nannoptopoma`.

Jools

[MatsP]

To make the clog-links work, I'd actually like to add synonyms on Nannoptopoma sp`peru` & sp`peru_white` as well.

Ah, that sets a bit of a dangerous precedent. I would suggest in cases like these we should be changing the clog links via manual edits or, at the very most, putting the old name in as a common name. E.G. White Peruvian `Nannoptopoma`.

Jools

I see what you mean.

[Ideally, we should have "hidden synonyms" - that is, internal names that are only visible to the CLOG link resolver...]

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Mats

[Jools]

OK, apart from the minor change to make hidden synonyms appear in the quick find search, is the original point on this thread now resolved?

Cheers,

Jools

[Mike_Noren]

Yes.

[MatsP]

I have submitted the code to fix the quick-find, and used the hidden synonyms, so

Nannoptopoma sp`peru`

should work now.

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Mats