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Carla Isobel Elliff (1) Alfredo Carvalho Filho (2)

Habitat: Aspistor luniscutis occurs along the eastern coast of South America from the Guianas to Brazil, and may reach a maximum length of 1.2 m (Figueiredo & Menezes 1978). Like the other species, it occupies marine and brackish environments (Marceniuk & Menezes 2007). Knowledge about this species is also very sparse (Mishima & Tanji 1982, Azevedo et al. 1999). The family Ariidae includes the catfishes, marine and brackish water leather fishes (Figueiredo & Menezes 1978). The family has a wide distribution in tropical and temperate waters, and its members occur near the coast, in estuaries and inland waters; few are strictly marine (Marceniuk & Menezes 2007). Reproduction: The catfishes seek out river mouths and lagoons during the spawning period (Figueiredo & Menezes 1978). The reproduction occurs normally, in the warmer months of the year or during the rainy period, when there is a major uptake from rivers (Mazzoni et al. 2000, Gomes & Araújo 2004, Fávaro et al. 2005). Diet: They have a wide feeding spectrum, which may vary during their ontogenetic development, with the diet mostly constituted of detritus, decapods, fish, polychaetes and bivalves (Espírito Santo & Isaac 1999). Remarks: The first thumbnail specimen was captured in Santos, Brazil in May 2011.

None

Arius luniscutis, Arius physacanthus, Arius bonneti, Arius clavispinosus, Arius despaxi, Notarius luniscutis

Ariidae

South America: Atlantic coastal rivers of South America from French Guiana to southern Brazil.

120.cm.TL (4ft)

20-27°c (67-81°f)

6.5-8.0.

Eduardo Bessa, Flávia Borges Santos, Wellington Silva Fernandez, Fernanda Motta da Costa Santos, Mônica Malagutti Feijó, Andreza Cristina Dias Arcuri & Alexander Turra. Life history of three catfish species (Siluriformes: Ariidae) from southeastern Brazil.
Ferraris, C.J. Jr., 2007. Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil (Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types. Zootaxa 1418:1-628.
Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2015. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication.www.fishbase.org, version (10/2015).
Marceniuk, A.P. and N.A. Menezes, 2007. Systematics of the family Ariidae (Ostariophysi, Siluriformes), with a redefinition of the genera. Zootaxa 1416:1-126.