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Danté Fenolio (1) Ericson Cernawsky Igual (3)

Habitat: Aspidoras mephisto is described from the Anésio III and Russão II cave system, upper Tocantins River basin, Goiás, Brazil. Description: The species can be readily distinguished from its congeners by troglomorphic features and also by presenting the following combination of features: infraorbital 1 generally with well-developed ventral laminar; or moderately developed; poorly-developed serrations on posterior margin of pectoral spine; nuchal plate not externally visible; dorsal fin, even in conspicuously coloured specimens, with only dark brown or black chromatophores concentrated on rays, forming spots in some specimens; membranes hyaline; or sparse dark brown or black chromatophores on membranes, not forming any conspicuous pattern; and inner laminar expansion of infraorbital 1 moderately developed. This newly discovered species (2017) lives in caves making it the first cave dwelling member of the Corydoradinae found. Aspidoras posses a duel fontanel bone structure in the skull whereas Corydoras have only the one larger fontanel. Lineage: All Aspidoras belong to Lineage 2 and when there is a revision they will stay as Aspidoras von Ihering, 1907 with the type species of A. rochai Ihering, 1907. As of the latest update (Dias et al 2024), Aspidoras mephisto has been placed in Lineage 2 and has retained the genus name of Aspidoras. Aquarium Care: Best kept in groups of six or more and are best housed with small fishes that are not aggressive. Although no plants occur in their habitat you can still provide a planted area in the tank for cover and include a soft substrate such as sand or small rounded gravel with coral sand added if in a soft water area. This species if ever exported would need a very dimly lit aquarium to prosper. Diet: Flake, tablet foods, small live and frozen foods. Etymology: The epithet “mephisto” refers to the shortened name of Mephistopheles, demon from the German folklore. Mephistopheles comes from the Greek by the combination of three words: (me), a negation, (phos), meaning light, and (philis), meaning loving, literally “not-light-loving”, or the one who does not love the light, making allusion to the subterranean behavior of the new species. A noun in apposition. Remarks: As this species lives in a cave system which is formed by limestone rock a higher pH above neutral would be best.

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Callichthyidae

South America: Brazil, known only from the Anésio-Russão cave system (Anésio III and Russão II caves), part of the upper Rio Tocantins basin.

Male: 5.0cm (2ins) Female: 5.5cm (2¼ins)

22-25°C (71-77°F)

7.0-7.5.

Alexandrou, Markos & Taylor, Martin. (2011). Evolution, ecology and taxonomy of the Corydoradinae revisited.
Angelica C Dias, Luiz F C Tencatt, Fabio F Roxo, Gabriel de Souza da Costa Silva, Sérgio A Santos, Marcelo R Britto, Martin I Taylor, Claudio Oliveira, Phylogenomic analyses in the complex Neotropical subfamily Corydoradinae (Siluriformes: Callichthyidae) with a new classification based on morphological and molecular data, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2024;, zlae053.
Tencatt LFC, Bichuette ME (2017) Aspidoras mephisto, new species: The first troglobitic Callichthyidae (Teleostei: Siluriformes) from South America. PLoS ONE 12(3): e0171309. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0171309.
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